Is this normal? Seems a bit extreme.

[ChickenTater Dad]

Ok, I'm new to the whole raising chickens bit. And I tend to leave it mostly in the hands of my wife to tend to the flock. But something seems off or a miss for some reason. Our birds started laying eggs a few months ago and it started with "Gertie"at first, then followed by "Dixie". Soon to be trailed by both "Dottie and Ginger".
Here's the issue or should I say what seems off. "Gertie" (Barred Rock breed) has layed 94 eggs in the last 94 days straight. "Dixie" ( Leghorn ) has layed 67 straight, and both "Dottie" (Barred Rock) & "Ginger" (ISA Brown) have each layed 85 days straight. So far all 4 of our girls have laid a total of 358 eggs (Some with defects) but i'm including those just in case it matters. Is that normal for 8 month old Birds? We got our first egg from any of the girls on September 4th of this year.

 

[nuthatched]

That's a bit much, do they have additional lighting?

 

[ChickenTater Dad]

That's a bit much, do they have additional lighting?

There is no extra lighting in the coop. The run is close to the house, but not under any lights

 

[igorsMistress]

It can be perfectly normal for young birds to lay through their first winter. Often hatchery birds are bred for their egg laying above all else, which means they burn out at an earlier age, but lay lots of eggs steadily through the first year or two.

 

[ChickenTater Dad]

It can be perfectly normal for young birds to lay through their first winter. Often hatchery birds are bred for their egg laying above all else, which means they burn out at an earlier age, but lay lots of eggs steadily through the first year or two.

Thanks. My wife is keeping a log of each birds egg laying and how much each egg weights. So far, we've run into mostly medium eggs, but have had a few jumbos, with several Large.

 

[AnnPann]

One of my 3 orpington pullets from April hatch is laying almost every day (like 13 out of 14 days), with no additional lighting. I was pleasantly surprised!

 

[Chicken poppy]

My chicken lays a LOT of eggs. During her first year, she only missed 3 days (3!)
no additional lighting or anything. Some are just very good egglayers. When they get older, it will slow somewhat.

 

[ChickenTater Dad]

One of my 3 orpington pullets from April hatch is laying almost every day (like 13 out of 14 days), with no additional lighting. I was pleasantly surprised!

Yea, our "Gertie"( Barred Rock) has layed everyday except 1 day since she started laying. She went about 4 days with 4 eggs, took a day off, then been throwing eggs ever since.

 

[aart]

Those are long stretches.
Much longer than these I recorded from one pullet:
From 7/23/2014 to 4/15/2015 49, 34, 20, 6, 13, 16, 4, 13, 42

 

[Mrs. K]

And really, what can you do about it? You really can't make or stop a chicken from laying.

However, next year - you might want to look at some ways of storing excess eggs in the summer - early fall, cause when one gets used to plenty of fresh eggs, it is a bit of a slap to be getting next to nothing, as they go through the molt and the long nights of winter.

Mrs K