Kept a count of eggs from my layers this (Dec 12-18). All the birds are less than a year old. I have 2 breeds of ducks and 4 breeds of chickens. All my birds forage freely on my 5 acres during the day except my Rhode Island Reds who have a run.
Best layers were my Welsh Harlequin ducks. I have two and every morning this week 2 eggs were waiting for me. That's a normal week for them. For the past 6 weeks I have had 13 or 14 eggs from them.
Best chickens were my Rhode Island Reds who played 10.
Next were my 6 Brown Leghorns who layed 24.
My Buff Orpingtons provided 22. But I am not completely sure about my Buff Orpington and Dominique egg numbers. Pictured below is one of my Buffs who chose to lay in a flower pot that had a marigold in it. Had I not seen her there and heard her egg song while I was working nearby, I would have thought from the color that it was a Dominique egg. Buffs eggs are usually a bit lighter than Dominiques, but my individual birds egg color varies. I also watched an egg emerge from a Dominique that I would have guessed to be from a Buff Orpington had I just found it. I counted 22 as Buff Orpington and 19 as Dominique. I have 6 layers of each kind. It's close to 50 percent of what is possible if they each layed every day for the Buffs and Dominiques.
I got exactly 50 percent from my Cayuga ducks for the week with 7 eggs collected from 2 females. My Cayugas hatched on June 10 this year. So far I have collected 8 total eggs from them and all in the last eight days. I think it's likely that one hasn't layed any yet.
I'm happy with all my layers and consider myself lucky to not having lost a single free foraging bird to predators here in rural McMinn County, TN. But I am especially impressed with how my Welsh Harlequins are producing.
Best layers were my Welsh Harlequin ducks. I have two and every morning this week 2 eggs were waiting for me. That's a normal week for them. For the past 6 weeks I have had 13 or 14 eggs from them.
Best chickens were my Rhode Island Reds who played 10.
Next were my 6 Brown Leghorns who layed 24.
My Buff Orpingtons provided 22. But I am not completely sure about my Buff Orpington and Dominique egg numbers. Pictured below is one of my Buffs who chose to lay in a flower pot that had a marigold in it. Had I not seen her there and heard her egg song while I was working nearby, I would have thought from the color that it was a Dominique egg. Buffs eggs are usually a bit lighter than Dominiques, but my individual birds egg color varies. I also watched an egg emerge from a Dominique that I would have guessed to be from a Buff Orpington had I just found it. I counted 22 as Buff Orpington and 19 as Dominique. I have 6 layers of each kind. It's close to 50 percent of what is possible if they each layed every day for the Buffs and Dominiques.
I got exactly 50 percent from my Cayuga ducks for the week with 7 eggs collected from 2 females. My Cayugas hatched on June 10 this year. So far I have collected 8 total eggs from them and all in the last eight days. I think it's likely that one hasn't layed any yet.
I'm happy with all my layers and consider myself lucky to not having lost a single free foraging bird to predators here in rural McMinn County, TN. But I am especially impressed with how my Welsh Harlequins are producing.