Feeding questions

[Cochincorgis7]

I wanted to ask if there was anything I can give my chickens to increase the egg size. These are fairly new layers. They are blue australorps and they are laying eggs the size of bantam eggs. They get feed the dumor mini pellets and it has 16% protein.

 

[Loving my girls]

I really won’t worry hun, All starters eggs are small. They get bigger and bigger as they get the hang of it.
Australorps are generally good layers with a figure of about 300 a year, afraid I don’t know the egg size at maturity.
I remember one of my hens starting off with eggs the size of a marble (yeah really!) she was a leghorn (brain matured 2 weeks after death ) and eventually her eggs were like ostrich eggs - real beauties.
I’ve never heard of a way of increasing egg size and not sure you will need to.
I’m sure you will soon be enjoying terrific butt nuggets.
Hugz

 

[nuthatched]

Not really, egg frequency and size has little to do with diet since it's ovulation and that is a process dictated by the individual chickens body.
Higher protein feed might help their health in general but they will lay bigger eggs as their body gets bigger.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I wanted to ask if there was anything I can give my chickens to increase the egg size. These are fairly new layers. They are blue australorps and they are laying eggs the size of bantam eggs. They get feed the dumor mini pellets and it has 16% protein.

Give them time!

All eggs start out pullet size.. Unless onset of lay was delayed for whatever reason or they are hiccups with multiple yolks. Or the other exception (in my experience) being the more commercial sex links that were bred for specific uniform traits.

So bigger eggs from the start is one bonus of ladies that start laying a bit later.. I'll take the cute eggs sooner if given the choice.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree, it is normal for an egg to be pretty small when a young pullet starts laying. A young pullet usually isn't fully grown so nature protects them by causing the first eggs to be smaller. Consistently laying larger eggs could possibly cause some medical issues with those smaller immature bodies..

The longer she lays the larger the eggs are. At first it is a fairly rapid increase in egg size but that increase in size slows down pretty quickly. Often after their first molt they will lay even larger eggs when they start laying again. It is interesting to watch.

The more protein they eat the larger the eggs will be within reason. The commercial egg laying operations use specially bred hybrid hens that have a fairly small body but lay a relatively large egg. With smaller bodies they can use more of what they eat for egg production instead of needing it to maintain their body. They typically feed a 16% protein ration. More protein in the feed and the eggs get larger. That could cause medical problems with their smaller bodies. Your Australorps are larger chickens than the laying hybrids so they can lay a larger egg without risking those problems. But they will also lay a lot of nice eggs on a 16% protein feed.

 

[WillowRae]

I have Blue Australorps, they started laying at 19 weeks, but their egg were small, they are now 25 weeks, and their eggs are still bantam size. Occasionally they will lay a large egg, but it is usually a double yolk egg. I'm looking forward to getting large eggs on a regular bases in the future.

 

[EddieSalita]

Ime many heritage breeds tend to build up in egg size. Sometimes a bit slowly. Production hybrids often come rip tearing out of the gate with just one or two smaller practice eggs.

It's not a rule though. Just a trend I've noticed.

If the birds aren't stressed, and have adequate nutrition. The eggs size can't really be controlled artificially by any significant measure. It's genetically pre determined.

 

[Penpal]

If the hens start laying when they normally start, the eggs will be small, then get bigger and bigger to their regular size. If they hens start laying later ( like if they came to egg laying age in the middle of winter) their eggs will start out larger, perhaps even the full regular size.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

YES*

You can give them time, as every other poster has correctly noted above.

Also, you can give them higher protein feed. The difference in average egg size between a layer breed fed a 16% CP diet of decent AA profile and the same breed fed a 20% CP diet of identical AA profile is a couple of %.

Will you notice it??? ABSOLUTELY NOT. The average large egg is around 57g. Increasing the protein content will make that same theoretically average egg weigh between 58 and 59g. You can measure it with a scale, but you will never see it with your eyes.

Plenty of us (self included) recommend higher protein feed than you find in typical layer formulations, but its not for reason of average egg weight.

New Layers need time for their plumbing to work out the kinks before they hit peak production.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Great advice so far. Just a waiting game till they mature.

Minimum protein is a long known fact, the choke point so to speak for producing eggs assuming the hen is healthy and mature.

The best practice is to have a good commercial laying pellet or crumble available 24/7, the hen will regulate their food consumption to what she needs in 99.999% of the hens.

All that said, there is a place for a small amount of supplement for higher protein, for trace minerals, and vitamins. Now all of that should be present in the commercial feed, but if you can afford it some fresh caught fish or canned sardines, milk, cooked eggs, fresh veggies, will be appreciated, just give in moderation so the birds don't neglect their normal ration. If you are poor like me try catching some trash fish like carp or drum, canning the fish using a pressure canner, and you have some emergency feed for very little cost and effort.