I'm at 25 weeks... Math doesn't lie...

[Panhandler80]

Yall please tell me if I'm looking at this wrong, but I don't think I am. I have 21 birds. For some reason, I was thinking that during peak laying, I'd be looking at 16-18 eggs. Right now I'm getting 12 almost every day, occasionally 11. When I realized they are at 25 weeks of age as of yesterday, I got to thinking... I should (in my novice mind, anyway) bet getting more eggs than that. However, when I consulted the hatchery's published egg laying capacity for each breed... perhaps I am almost at capacity.

If you average their published Low/High number, and apply that number to my quantity of birds, then I would be looking at an average of 246 eggs / chicken / year. That equates to 5,1720 eggs / year. That divided by 365 is a fourteen eggs / day.

Looks like only one or two might not be laying at this point. I'm getting 12 / day, and if each breed lays an average of what they published, I guess 13-15 would make perfect sense. Although, I guess there will be periods of much less (molting, dead of winter, etc) and the spring / early / mid summer they should be maybe a touch more than even 15.

			Low	High	Average	Weighted
Barred Rock	1	0.047619	200	280	240	11.43
RSL / Cin Queen	3	0.142857	250	320	285	40.71
Speckled Sussex	1	0.047619	180	240	210	10.00
Dominique	2	0.095238	180	260	220	20.95
RI White	1	0.047619	220	280	250	11.90
Austra White	1	0.047619	220	280	250	11.90
White Leghorn	1	0.047619	220	300	260	12.38
Brown Leghorn	1	0.047619	230	300	265	12.62
BSL	1	0.047619	200	280	240	11.43
EE	7	0.333333	200	280	240	80.00
Welsummer	2	0.095238	200	280	240	22.86
	21					246.19	/ Year / Chicken
						5170.00	eggs / year
						14.16	eggs / day

 

[One Lucky Momma]

Are you sure you didn’t post this just to show off your spreadsheet savvy? You might benefit from a few hours of chicken TV.

 

[aart]

when I consulted the hatchery's published egg laying capacity for each breed.

The birds don't read that stuff.
Hard numbers rarely apply to living animals.
Thus can't tell how many birds are laying by counting daily eggs.....
This might give you a more accurate number of birds that are actually laying:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/who-is-laying-and-who-is-not-butt-check.73309/

 

[Folly's place]

Remember Samuel Clemens; "Lies, damn lies, and statistics"!

 

[JaeG]

Pullets that have started laying before the day lengths get shorter will continue to lay through their first winter. If you have one that's come into their individual laying 'age' when there isn't enough day length to trigger egg production then they may not start until spring rolls around.
Pullets can be less frequent in the egg laying department until their bodies are better practiced at producing eggs too. Hopefully their egg production will pick up a little for you.

 

[Panhandler80]

Well, I got 14 today... That's ac record. thought one of the Dominique was trying to sleep in nesting box at sunset. Set her on a perch... She flew down and hop back in a box. Went out after dark a few minutes ago she had left the box and an egg... #14 for the day. All roosted pretty now. For first time watched entire process them fly up and jockey for position in my four 8' roosting bars. Great design. there are three parallel at the lower two levels two of which match, and one highest perpendicular to them. No way to poop on each other. They were able to jump up down bar2bar and back onto the coop floor with ease as they figured it all out.

 

[Panhandler80]

With daylight hours starting to reduce now. That is expected. And it could be all of them are not laying yet. And some won't lay every day.
I've got six that are about 25 weeks old and five that are a few weeks behind. Four of the six older ones are laying and two of the five younger ones. So it all depends
One time I had an EE that didn't like her first egg for over nine months!

Understood.

Hence my attempt to figure out what on average I should expect form the 21 hens year round. I'm betting it will average out to right at 14 per day....

Attached as an image file this time, so the entire thing should show up on mobile devices...

 

[Panhandler80]

Maybe not till spring but with the right hens next spring you'll be figuring out what to do with all the eggs. Haha. Some of them do lay some in winter especially first year

I've heard that.

I'm getting 12 / day now. And at 25 weeks, there's a chance 1 or 2 aren't laying. Curious to see what next spring and summer bring.

 

[Panhandler80]

Don't think they made the spreadsheet. Think it was one they got from hatchery

From hatchery website were the Low / High lay expectations by breed. The rest was me forecasting. I use the average of each breed they posted, and then weighed that average based off what percent of flock each chicken comprises.

I'd be willing to bet set over the course of the year I averaged about 14 a day. Like I said, math don't lie... That number just seems low to me instinctually... But that's probably because I did not take into account future years when they slow in the winter, during molt, etc.

 

[NatJ]

Hahaha. Good luck catching this crazy ladies!

Sometimes it works to grab them off the roost after dark.