ISA Browns & Golden Comets

[Caroline's Ladies]

Hello! Quick question . I have 4 ISA Browns and 3 Golden Comets and 2 Leghorns. We feed them Dumor Organic Feed, heat their coop and care for them everyday. They are 10 months old and I was told that they will only produce eggs for the first two years and then they don’t lay at all again laying a sporadic egg maybe every month if that. Is this true?

 

[Ridgerunner]

No. After their second adult molt they will lay less than they will in their first two seasons. How much less is an individual thing but the overall average for the flock will probably be in the 15% to 20% range, maybe an egg per chicken less each week. With a small flock it could be more or less since just one hen can make a big differences in percentages.

Where that comes from is commercial egg laying operations operate on a thin margin. That 15% to 20% drop makes it more profitable for them to bring in new pullets rather than feed that flock through a molt and them not produce as much.

Those studies were run on ISA Browns, Delaware, and similar hens.

 

[Kessel23]

I have a 5 year old brown leghorn hen who still gives me 3-4 eggs a week. She has excellent egg production for her age. Production breeds and crosses will slow down every year but usually don't completely stop till they are past 4 in my experience, assuming they have not died from the high production rates yet. I also have some 5 year old RIRs and a few 4 year olds, they are all still laying but don't give much. I am very impressed with my Brown leghorn and don't think that production rate is normal for her age. All of my RSL and WL are already past 2 and still laying consistently. 2 of the RSLs did die this summer from production related issues though.

 

[Caroline's Ladies]

Thank you so much!! I love my girls and when I heard that they don’t lay at all, I was surprised! I would obviously still keep them but I do love an occasional egg.

 

[mct01]

Ours are about to turn 3. This winter they went through a molt. Their egg production all but stopped. Had raised them on Purina 16% layer. The molt was brutal on them. I changed them to 22% layer. The change was amazing. Their new feathers look like they did when they were young. When yours get 2 to 2.5 years old raise their protein level. They are high performance girls. It got where their feathers just didn't look good. The 22% took care of that. They are great fun and have nice attitudes. It seems there are different opinions on lights. This winter was the 1st time their egg production almost stopped. From 13 girls we we're only 1 maybe 2 a day. Normally we would get 10 to 13 a day. I added a light that comes on at 4pm and off at midnight. After about a week and a half of light we are getting 8 to 10 eggs a day. From going to bed at 4:30, they now are out hunting when I get home from work at 10 pm. Just some observations from our girls the last 3 years. We bought 10 more chicks by mail that were born Dec 1st. They are doing great. Have fun.

 

[mct01]

Forgot to mention all ours are ISA Browns.

 

[StephanieRose44]

Rusty( older hen)that laid dark brown egg) Rosie (the younger hen —Yellow chick below)
Rusty is on the left

Hello! Quick question . I have 4 ISA Browns and 3 Golden Comets and 2 Leghorns. We feed them Dumor Organic Feed, heat their coop and care for them everyday. They are 10 months old and I was told that they will only produce eggs for the first two years and then they don’t lay at all again laying a sporadic egg maybe every month if that. Is this true?

Hello just have a question about your ISA Browns and Golden Comets. I have 2 (what were labeled) ISA Browns but I believe one of them she is a week younger is a Golden Comet? The other who I believe is the ISA brown (could be wrong) laid her first egg the other day and it was a dark dark brown beautiful colored egg. Wasn’t expecting it to be that dark. The younger one as a chick started out looking more like just a yellow chick, that she started getting this rusty mottled brown color, the older one started out reddish with two stripes down her back. Now that they’re about the same size they look almost identical except the older one has longer white tail feather and more white underneath in general. Did any of your chicks look like these or developed like these ?

 

[Caroline's Ladies]

It’s really hard to tell because they are hybrids and don’t breed true. They are like Labradoodles . Not one looks like the other. I have some ISAs that have curly feathers like a Frizzle on their back end! Lol.

 

[Caroline's Ladies]

Ours are about to turn 3. This winter they went through a molt. Their egg production all but stopped. Had raised them on Purina 16% layer. The molt was brutal on them. I changed them to 22% layer. The change was amazing. Their new feathers look like they did when they were young. When yours get 2 to 2.5 years old raise their protein level. They are high performance girls. It got where their feathers just didn't look good. The 22% took care of that. They are great fun and have nice attitudes. It seems there are different opinions on lights. This winter was the 1st time their egg production almost stopped. From 13 girls we we're only 1 maybe 2 a day. Normally we would get 10 to 13 a day. I added a light that comes on at 4pm and off at midnight. After about a week and a half of light we are getting 8 to 10 eggs a day. From going to bed at 4:30, they now are out hunting when I get home from work at 10 pm. Just some observations from our girls the last 3 years. We bought 10 more chicks by mail that were born Dec 1st. They are doing great. Have fun.

Thank you so much!!