- Thread starter
- #11
@aart - I don't think it was anecdotal supposition, the breeder who wrote that comment had observed this tendency often enough in his/her own flock that saying it to other breeders would not sound like superstition. It was not specified whether trap nests were used to count egg production, so I'm going to assume they didn't, and yet the difference was obvious enough to be noticed over several generations of hatched chicks.
@Hidrainja4 - The breeder works with landrace chickens. The standards for such breeds are pretty loose, so I'm not sure if there's a minimum weight for their hatching eggs. Though, it is true that chicks hatched from big eggs are more vigorous.
My flock is primarily there for egg production. I usually keep my hens for 2-3 years before re-homing them, but I'd like to increase that time. (I'm aware they lay all their lives, though less reliably past 3 years old). If my experience with water-glassing works, I would be able keep them 5-9 years in my coop instead of 2-3 years. Being able to preserve my eggs months in advance means I wouldn't need my flock to lay in the middle of January, to ensure my family has something to eat during wintertime if a catastrophe like Montreal's 1998 Icing Period hits Quebec again. My flock's health would be better for it, and they would, I hope, not develop any health issues until far into their golden years. (Also I get more time to spoil them silly, so that's a plus.)
@Acre4Me - That sounds like the dream chicken for industrial producers o.o Do you have the link to this article/comment? I'd like to read it too, because as far as I know, a chicken who lays with an artificial light runs out of eggs sooner in life than one of the same age who is left to naturally 'recharge' each winter.
@Silkielee - the comment did not specify whether the hens observed (young and old) were broody. It's true that broody hens tend to lay longer in life since they take more breaks between each laying periods, but it doesn't explain why pullet-hatched chicks have an overall shorter laying lifespan than hen-hatched chicks. If both pullet and hen brood, their stock of eggs don't deplete. They're tied there. And in all honesty, if we put the two against each other in a laying race, the hen would lay less than the pullet each year because she's already got a few laying years of headstart on the pullet.
aart pointed out something important though. One thing that could explain how a hen outlasts a pullet in egg-laying is longevity. Pullet-hatched chicks come from immature females, so they inherit immature bodies and a weakened immune system that makes them more vulnerable to illness and predation than hen-hatched chicks. The pullet-hatched chicks have the capacity to lay as much as the hen-hatched chicks, but their lesser resilience dooms them to an earlier death, so the egg count isn't as high as those from the hen-hatched chicks by the time they finally hit the cooking pot. (Or croak somewhere in the yard, whichever comes first.)
@Hidrainja4 - The breeder works with landrace chickens. The standards for such breeds are pretty loose, so I'm not sure if there's a minimum weight for their hatching eggs. Though, it is true that chicks hatched from big eggs are more vigorous.
My flock is primarily there for egg production. I usually keep my hens for 2-3 years before re-homing them, but I'd like to increase that time. (I'm aware they lay all their lives, though less reliably past 3 years old). If my experience with water-glassing works, I would be able keep them 5-9 years in my coop instead of 2-3 years. Being able to preserve my eggs months in advance means I wouldn't need my flock to lay in the middle of January, to ensure my family has something to eat during wintertime if a catastrophe like Montreal's 1998 Icing Period hits Quebec again. My flock's health would be better for it, and they would, I hope, not develop any health issues until far into their golden years. (Also I get more time to spoil them silly, so that's a plus.)
@Acre4Me - That sounds like the dream chicken for industrial producers o.o Do you have the link to this article/comment? I'd like to read it too, because as far as I know, a chicken who lays with an artificial light runs out of eggs sooner in life than one of the same age who is left to naturally 'recharge' each winter.
@Silkielee - the comment did not specify whether the hens observed (young and old) were broody. It's true that broody hens tend to lay longer in life since they take more breaks between each laying periods, but it doesn't explain why pullet-hatched chicks have an overall shorter laying lifespan than hen-hatched chicks. If both pullet and hen brood, their stock of eggs don't deplete. They're tied there. And in all honesty, if we put the two against each other in a laying race, the hen would lay less than the pullet each year because she's already got a few laying years of headstart on the pullet.
aart pointed out something important though. One thing that could explain how a hen outlasts a pullet in egg-laying is longevity. Pullet-hatched chicks come from immature females, so they inherit immature bodies and a weakened immune system that makes them more vulnerable to illness and predation than hen-hatched chicks. The pullet-hatched chicks have the capacity to lay as much as the hen-hatched chicks, but their lesser resilience dooms them to an earlier death, so the egg count isn't as high as those from the hen-hatched chicks by the time they finally hit the cooking pot. (Or croak somewhere in the yard, whichever comes first.)
...too late...shes sitting on some of hers (6yr old hen) and some pullet eggs. 12 in total.
