My broiler hens lay regularly!

[olddairyfarm]

I'm interested to see what others have to say about the following:

We brought home 40 chicks from a school hatching project. Within a few weeks, it was obvious that they were Cornish Meat Birds. We culled about 30 when they were 20 weeks, and each bird was about as big as the Jennie-O turkeys we buy at Thanksgiving! We are now left with about 10 broiler hens. They were the smallest of the flock. 4 of the 10 are regular egg layers. I suspect that some are just under-developed roos. One of the hens lays double yolks nearly every other day. Between the 4 of them, we get between 2 and 5 eggs a day. The birds are fat, and they have the cutest waddle, but I suppose that because they are free-range they get enough exercise so that their legs are still in good shape. They are now 8 months old. Many friends are surprised that they are laying and that they are still alive! We live next to many Tyson factories, so the eggs were donated by local broiler houses.
VIDEO OF MY BROILER FLOCK at 3 months of age...
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseacti … d=14127304

 

[silkiechicken]

If you are getting 2-5 eggs a day, more than 4 are laying. Four eggs out of 10 hens at 8 months old is not very good for a layer but good for broilers. Plus, you culled 75% of the population that most likely would not have made it.

Good job at keeping the smallest alive and healthy, my thoughts are that the "roosters" are the ones laying since any real roos would be crowing by now.

A few have hatched eggs from broilers too and there are even cases of them being broody hens and raising chicks.

There is always exceptions to the norm and you have been able to pull it off.

I bet they eat tons of food though! Expensive eggs right there.

 

[olddairyfarm]

Thanks for the speedy reply. We culled all of the obvious roosters, but kept the one that was beginning to crow. He got really aggressive a month ago so will killed him. Then, with that big crowing roo gone, one of our "hens" waddle and comb began to grow much larger, and now he's HUGE and crowing. It's like he only began to develop once the dominant roo was gone.

Trying that link again...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=14127304