Lifecycle of laying hens

[sideWing]

Greetings! I have been lurking around here for a while and want to thank everyone for all the great info on this site. I have owned chickens in the past, but I'm just starting up again with my young boys (9 and 12).

I got to wondering why it is that we have eggs year round, but people only seem to breed, hatch, and sell in the spring? I know egg production falls off in the winter and that folks use light and good nutrition to keep the eggs flowing so why is this whole thing such a spring thing? It got me trying to piece together what the life cycle of a chicken looks like and I'm wondering if some of you folks can help me fill in the blanks.

I know this does not apply if you are keeping hens for life which is totally fine.

Assuming this is not a hybrid, so far it seems.....

Spring (year 1)
Eggs hatch or purchase chicks
Raise chicks

Summer (year 1)
Takes 17 to 25 weeks to start producing eggs in the summer.
Sell or process excess roosters for meat or caponize roosters for meat later.

Fall (year 1)
Molt and a slow in egg production.
Good feeding and light change to keep eggs flowing.

Winter (year 1)
Good feeding and light change to keep eggs flowing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Year 2
Spring (year 2)
Separate breeding groups (what date?)
Breeding
Egg incubation
Sell extra or culled chicks
Raise chicks

Summer (year 2)
Takes 17 to 25 weeks for new chicks to start producing eggs in the summer.
Sell or process excess roosters for meat.
### Some folks seem to sell previous years hens here?

Fall (year 2)
Molt and a slow in egg production.
Good feeding and light change to keep eggs flowing.

Winter (year 2)
Good feeding and light change to keep eggs flowing.

Questions:

1. When do you separate groups for breeding?
2. Why don't folks still breed, hatch and sell stock in the winter since they are getting some eggs?
3. When or do you, make a bulk food purchase?
4. How long can a hen produce offspring from a mating? Or how long do they need to be separate from the main flock to make sure you are not hatching an unknown roosters chicks?

Thanks,
Sid

 

[Ridgerunner]

1. When do you separate groups for breeding?
About a month before you start saving eggs to hatch. See #4.

2. Why don't folks still breed, hatch and sell stock in the winter since they are getting some eggs?
Some do, but Spring and Summer is preferred. I’ve hatched in February but it is easier when the temperatures are not so extreme. An incident in warmer weather may just be an inconvenience while in the winter it could easily be fatal. If you are shipping hatching eggs or chicks, the winter weather is much more dangerous to them.

3. When or do you, make a bulk food purchase?
I don’t

4. How long can a hen produce offspring from a mating? Or how long do they need to be separate from the main flock to make sure you are not hatching an unknown roosters chicks?
It takes about 25 hours for an egg to make its way through a hen’s internal egg making factory. It can only be fertilized in the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a mating takes place on a Sunday, Sunday’s egg is not fertile. Monday’s might or might not be depending on when it started its journey and when the mating took place. Don’t count on it. Tuesday’s egg will be fertile. This of course assumes the mating was successful. Not all are. And a rooster does not mate every hen in the flock every day.

The last part of the mating ritual is just after the rooster hops off, the hen fluffs up her feathers and gives a shake. This fluffy shake moves the sperm into a special container inside the hen. This container stores the sperm and releases it. The sperm can normally stay viable for at least two weeks and sometimes for as long as over three weeks. If you want to make sure the eggs are fertilized by the current rooster you need to give her at least three weeks and even better four weeks to clean out her system.

 

[sideWing]

Thanks Ridgerunner!

 

[eagrbeavr]

Thanks for those answers Ridgerunner. You come across to me as 'old school' and I really like that.

 

[sideWing]

1. When do you separate groups for breeding?
About a month before you start saving eggs to hatch. See #4.

I'm sure it depends on your weather and location, but what month do you start to separate for breeding? I see some early chicks available in March, so maybe mid Jan?

 

[scflock]

Ridgerunner knows far more about this than I do, so the only question I will chime in on is hatching in the winter. The few eggs I do get during the winter, I hatch so I will have started pullets and meat birds to sell along with the chicks in the spring. Many people don't want to mess with brooders, so I like to have some older birds to kick off the season. Once I start selling chicks, they never last long enough to grow out.
I keep all of my breeds separate, so I don't have to worry about the crosses

 

[sideWing]

That is great advice and exactly why I love this forum. Thank you!

 

[aart]

..........
Fall (year 1)
Molt and a slow in egg production.
Good feeding and light change to keep eggs flowing.
.......

Chicks hatched in spring don't molt the fall of their first year and can sometimes lay thru the winter without supplemental lighting.
First full adult molt *usually* happens at 18 months of age.

I too gather eggs for hatching in Feb/Mar, I like to hatch early so they are laying by late summer.

I'm just in my second year of chicken keeping and weighing the pros and cons of when to harvest older hens for meat, it's a hard decision.
I have hens aged 3,2 and 1 years old .... and a couple batches of chicks. Most the oldest ones are still laying but only once or twice a week, the 2 year old maybe 2-3 times a week. Hard to balance my space availability with my population numbers and the ages of that population. My goal is to have enough egg sales to pay for all the feed and bedding, and eat the extra cockerels and older hens, which I've been able to do so far. My space is finite and I've found I want to play with some cross breeding....it would be nice to have a couple extra pens for isolation.

It will probably take me another year or 2 to find a 'hard' rotation schedule...or I may never find it.
With chickens I've learned to expect the unexpected and never count them before they hatch or lay or.........

 

[sideWing]

Chicks hatched in spring don't molt the fall of their first year and can sometimes lay thru the winter without supplemental lighting.
First full adult molt *usually* happens at 18 months of age.

I did not know that. That's a huge help, thanks!

Have you read the "How to cull the flock" chapter of Why Poultry Pays and how to Make it Pay edited by Frank L. Plat ? it's a free book on google books.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Gy...t:"poultry"&pg=PA100#v=onepage&q=cull&f=false

I'm going to try to use this culling method on my flock as they reach 2-3 years. I'm wondering if the sexlinks will drop off after the first two years, but I have Wyandottes and I've heard they can lay profitably into their third year or more. I'm new to all this so I will have to see.