Egg size

[fmorlando1]

So is this a thing or just a coincidence?
For the last week and a half I have been re-fencing the area where my chickens free range, buff Orpington‘s. So they have been spending all their time in the coop and run and not foraging and only eating feed and treats that I give them. It looks to me like the size of the eggs they are laying now are larger. When they are free ranging they do have access to feed however they eat less of it. Do you think there’s any correlation between this and the egg size?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Age of birds?

 

[fmorlando1]

Age of birds?

Age of birds?

One year and three months

 

[nuthatched]

They're likely getting more nutrition from eating just feed than from free ranging, the egg size reflects this. Or it could just be coincidence.

 

[fmorlando1]

They're likely getting more nutrition from eating just feed than from free ranging, the egg size reflects this. Or it could just be coincidence.

Thanks for the confirmation. After a few days it felt like more than coincidence to me. Once the fence is done I’ll go back to free ranging, the benefits of them eating less feed and having more freedom outweighs the slightly larger eggs. The egg size I have been getting has always varied somewhat and I always assumed that was just because some hens are bigger than the others. Getting consistently larger eggs, But still with some variance, from everybody is what made me curious. Thanks for your reply.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

Thanks for the confirmation. After a few days it felt like more than coincidence to me. Once the fence is done I’ll go back to free ranging, the benefits of them eating less feed and having more freedom outweighs the slightly larger eggs. The egg size I have been getting has always varied somewhat and I always assumed that was just because some hens are bigger than the others. Getting consistently larger eggs, But still with some variance, from everybody is what made me curious. Thanks for your reply.

Interesting. Would you be willing to update again once they are free ranging? What feed do you use?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Several years back a guy that kept a huge flock of commercial egg laying hybrids to sell the eggs and kept them Organic said he fed his chickens 16% protein feed. That's what they were bred to eat and produce Grade A Large eggs. If he fed them a 20% or higher protein feed the eggs would be huge, big enough to possibly injure the hens with their relatively small bodies. He was in the business and understood how it worked. I've read other sources where they say the more protein in the feed the bigger the eggs. It's less of an issue with our regular dual purpose hens, they don't have relatively small bodies compared to the size of the eggs they normally lay.

From what I've read I think there is a good possibility that the eggs may have gotten slightly larger when a higher portion of what they were eating was your feed instead of forage. How much is probably dependent on the quality of the forage and what percent protein your feed is.

 

[fmorlando1]

Interesting. Would you be willing to update again once they are free ranging? What feed do you use?

Yes I’ll be happy to report back. I feed them Argmaster 16% layer feed.

 

[fmorlando1]

Update, the chickens have been free ranging again for about two weeks, with access to their normal food as before. Definitely slightly smaller eggs not significant but noticeable. And not all the eggs.