How Many Eggs Will My Hens Really Lay?

[ChickenScratchin]

Excellent column - thanks!

 

[ChicKat]

Thank you (as always) for the excellent information that you provide to us.

 

[Fred's Hens]

There are incredibly knowledgeable folks here on BYC. Some, I, frankly, cannot stand in their shadow. There is always more to learn and these folks are astounding, to me, for the insights, experience and knowledge they share so freely. Allow me to say how grateful I am to them. I'll unintentionally miss a whole bunch of folks, which is always the risk of naming names, but I just have to name a few.

Robert Blosi, Speckled Hen, Chris09, KathyinMO, NYReds, Judy, (Ddawn) and so many, many others I am forgetting. I thank them for their work here to educate and encourage.

 

[jtbrown]

Wow, what a great thread. Appreciate it. It is awfully easy to get caught up in numbers, in the short time I've had my chickens, I have learned a lot. And will assume they will continue to teach me more too, as I learn more here.

Thanks for the info, I 2nd the suggestion to submit to a poultr/livestock magazine, you have a knack of conveying information well.

 

[cmom]

Fred's Hens :

When I was a young man, keeping flocks, a meat bird meant a standard White Rock or that new Delaware bird and a "layer" meant you kept Leghorns. There was no CornishX. I had heard of barnyard mixes and mutts, but had never heard of a specialty hybrid. Who could have imagined that birds would be "patented" and seen as a genetic commodity? I had never heard of the Institut de Selection Animale, nor Hubbard, Hi-Sex, Bovan, Shaver, DeKalb, Babcock or any other of the "genetics" conglomerate.

I am about your age 30??? and I think about this too. Also there were no commercial feed that we used it was all grain feed and there were no coops the birds went into the barn and layed their eggs in the hay.​

 

[Fred's Hens]

Actually, we bought commercial feed in the 1950's. The formulas were based on the available science of the era. Feed formulas have been widely available to farmers since the 1920's. Feed is merely the stock grain(s), ground, with the elevator/feed mill mixing in the ratio of minerals and such additives as directed according to the formula of the era.

The process of selling farmers on the latest science was admittedly slow in some areas. Those who were committed to larger scale operations were highly in tune with the latest poultry science coming out of their land grant State Universities and were early embracers. Laying contests demonstrated the necessity of top quality feed for high production. Back yard subsistence farmers, whose main focus was on dairy, hogs or field crops and who only kept small household flocks were somewhat less likely to "keep up" perhaps.

 

[off-grid hen]

*Clears throat loudly* A-HEM! You're way past due for a new post in this thread, sir.

 

[Fred's Hens]

*Clears throat loudly* A-HEM! You're way past due for a new post in this thread, sir.

Prime the pump. Ask me. Be glad to obliged. Got a topic related subject or aspect in mind?

 

[off-grid hen]

When surfing BYC tonight, I read a thread about sex links and large egg size, and you had mentioned rationing the ISA's and how it kept the egg size to a dull roar. But there was also a thread inquiring at hen's age and peak egg size. I got one of those cute chicken shaped egg scales for Christmas. "Incredible egg scale" I think, old style with the counter weight. I wonder how accurate it is, but it's a great conversation piece for the countertop.

My hens started laying beginning of October and everyone was laying by end of November. The eggs are still medium sized. My friend who raises chickens tells me they'll be increasing til they're a year old, but elsewhere here I've read that they should have been laying their "size" earlier. I guess my question is now feed related and whether or not caloric or nutritional intake could be a factor in the eggs size of my hens.

They are measuring just inside the "small" line for a few of my Dominiques and 3/4 ofmy RC brown leghorns. Definitely in the medium zone for the other Dom and RCBL, and mid-high end of medium for my partridge rocks. I know that it's at least a little accurate, because I every time I see a large egg from the store, I am amazed at how large it is! I will also say that in the course of 2 weeks I went from 4-7 eggs a day I am now getting 7-10 eggs a day. With the sudden jump in production, I noticed that the egg size is also increasing. And there have been more funny oblong shaped eggs.

I am also wondering if they reached point of lay close to the reduction in daylight hours and that caused a delay in the eggs reaching the larger size.

I was just going to wait and see, but seeing these two posts tonight made me wonder and think. Me being new at this, the answer is probably a simple one.

 

[Fred's Hens]

When surfing BYC tonight, I read a thread about sex links and large egg size, and you had mentioned rationing the ISA's and how it kept the egg size to a dull roar. But there was also a thread inquiring at hen's age and peak egg size. I got one of those cute chicken shaped egg scales for Christmas. "Incredible egg scale" I think, old style with the counter weight. I wonder how accurate it is, but it's a great conversation piece for the countertop.
My hens started laying beginning of October and everyone was laying by end of November. The eggs are still medium sized. My friend who raises chickens tells me they'll be increasing til they're a year old, but elsewhere here I've read that they should have been laying their "size" earlier. I guess my question is now feed related and whether or not caloric or nutritional intake could be a factor in the eggs size of my hens.
They are measuring just inside the "small" line for a few of my Dominiques and 3/4 ofmy RC brown leghorns. Definitely in the medium zone for the other Dom and RCBL, and mid-high end of medium for my partridge rocks. I know that it's at least a little accurate, because I every time I see a large egg from the store, I am amazed at how large it is! I will also say that in the course of 2 weeks I went from 4-7 eggs a day I am now getting 7-10 eggs a day. With the sudden jump in production, I noticed that the egg size is also increasing. And there have been more funny oblong shaped eggs.
I am also wondering if they reached point of lay close to the reduction in daylight hours and that caused a delay in the eggs reaching the larger size.
I was just going to wait and see, but seeing these two posts tonight made me wonder and think. Me being new at this, the answer is probably a simple one.