metabolism of nutrients into eggs laid

[triplepurpose]

how long does it take for nutrients consumed by a hen to be incorporated into eggs being laid? for example, if you put breeders onto a special diet intended to yield superior hatching eggs, how long might one want to wait before beginning to collect for hatching so as to ensure optimal nutrition for the embryos?

This is partly academic, but also partly relevant to our situation at present... both since we are breeding and because we are interested in nutritionally dense foods

 

[junebuggena]

The average hen has about 3 to 6 yolks at different stages of development at any given time. It's like an assembly line in there. It takes about 22 to 32 hours for the most mature yolk to be turned into an egg and laid, depending on the hen. When that egg is laid, the next yolk gets sent through the egg production system. I figure it would be about a week or so (again, depending on how productive the hen is)for the diet to take full effect, regarding the eggs.