How many eggs laid in a hen's lifetime

[joebryant]

Can anyone calculate about how many eggs the average hen might lay in her lifetime?

 

[digitS']

That's difficult to answer, Joe.

If we are talking about the average production hen then it would be easier but you aren't asking about those birds, I bet.

A hen stops laying for a number of reasons. There's actually research on this issue (using Coturnix quail instead of chickens) at a university near me. The question those folks want to answer is why birds stop producing eggs when oocytes are still in abundant supply within the ovary. And, how that is different from mammals and humans, especially.

A hundred years ago, Professor James Dryden at what is now Oregon State University had the first documented 1,000 eggs/lifetime hen. My guess is that we haven't got much beyond that milepost.

If we were start off with a laying hen producing 280 eggs/year and experiencing a 30% decrease each year (about what Rose reported in Principles of Poultry Science, if I remember correctly). That would be 196 eggs in the 2nd year. 137 in the 3rd year . . . 96 in the 4th year . . . 67 in the 5th year . . . where should we stop??
Just adding those numbers up: 776 eggs/lifetime

Steve

 

[joebryant]

Thanks, digitS', with that I'll just use the number 1,000 for what my eggs will cost me IF:
I have two hens that are laying, plus one other that never laid anymore after she laid three VERY big ones (I'd've stopped too), and a rooster, i.e., four chickens. I also have two silkies, but they aren't chickens, so they don't count.
Let's see now. $4,000 spent on coop. Now in process of walling in the west end of the barn to make another area for chickens; that's going to cost at least another $1,000 before it's finished.

Two hens will lay 2,000 eggs. $5,000/2000= $2.50 per egg or $30 per dozen.
That does not include cost of feed plus a lot of other stuff for four chickens, so I will sell them for $35.00 dozen if I ever get around to taking them to the farmers' market.