My Egg Laying Machine Buff Orpington

[Stan]

I have to share this.... As my first venture into chicken raising, I bought two 16 week old Buff Orpington hens just before New Years. They were beautiful young ladies. Three weeks later the first BO laid her first egg. She then laid two 3 day clusters (3 eggs...in 3 days...then a day off). Then to my amazement she has laid 8 eggs on 8 consecutive days....the 8th one this morning. At that rate it equates to 365 eggs a year, far above the breed advertised 160 per year.... BTW the second hen hasn't started laying yet.... I am interested in seeing what will be her laying rate. I would appreciate comments on what laying rates other BO owners have seen....

 

[Buff Hooligans]

I hope you remember this stellar performance when her Christmas bonus time comes up.

 

[savingdogs]

I'm new to chickens too but I've become a BYC addict so I do think I can answer a couple of your questions. I have Buff Orpingtons too, they are almost a year old now. They are my favorite of my three breeds (also have orloffs and RIR).

Young chickens lay alot more eggs than older chickens. They kinda have a certain number of eggs they are able to produce in their lifetime and production factory starts off real well and peters out over time. So those production numbers are probably averaged over a Buff Orpington's lifetime.

My girls are all doing real well now that we put the light on for them and all three breeds will occasionally have a day everyone lays at least one, or twice we had one bird lay two.
But usually that will follow with the next day their being a few birds that do not lay. By lighting their coop, we are kind of encouraging them to lay more of their eggs in their lifetime earlier.

Our BO eggs are very nice. Our girls all started at different times (we have eight BO). Our BO roo became interested in all of them at the same time that they began laying, but one or two of them were much later in getting started. The one that started last at first did not like the eggs and pecked them. But we put golf balls in there and successfully retrained her to not peck at eggs anymore. She also started laying them herself so that is part of what solved the problem. So I wouldn't leave the egg of the one laying already in the nest too long. Your non laying BO might not understand what it is like mine did. We thought we were going to have to eat her...she escaped with her head at the last possible moment by ceasing and desisting her egg-pecking habit.

My chickens also seem to lay real well (as a group) after a day I've given an especially satisfying treat. Mine love those Flock blocks, that is the kind of thing I mean.

 

[HEChicken]

I'm pretty impressed with my BO's too. I got them as chicks in August, and the first laid her first egg 2 days after Christmas. She laid 4 eggs in five days, then stopped (probably coinciding with a spell of cold weather here). After an 11-day break she started up again and today laid her 25th egg in 25 days. Yep, that's right. She has not taken a single day off since she started back up!

The second started laying a couple of weeks ago. She has taken a few days off but in 13 days has laid 10 eggs, so I can't complain.

Now, I hope one of them goes broody this Spring....

 

[Big Red Hen]

I have 2 and as of late, they've been laying everyday for about a week or so. Both were laying large eggs, but Sweet Pea, for whatever reason has started laying small eggs. I hope it doesn't last too much longer. Nevertheless, they're my favorite breed!

 

[LittleFeat]

My BO just started laying last Thurs. She's laid 5 in 7 days. All perfectly shaped and almost identical. Probably would measure as Large.
Now I have another that's laid 2 lighter brown. I haven't been able to determine yet who the "mystery layer" is. I believe it might be Frisbie my EE but I'm hoping for Green or Blue from her so I'm holding out that the mystery hen is Wynnie the SLW.

 

[savingdogs]

Quote:
One of ours was already broody, we had to discourage it. BO definitely will go broody!

 

[prov31gal]

talk about bos being broody! we have 4 of them and they are the broodiest chickens ive ever seen. we have 1 lady who became very broody in december and she would collect up all the eggs in to a little clutch and sit. god help anyone who stuck their hand into the house to try to get those eggs out from under her. she was sitting and that was that as far as she was concerned. but since it was december.......they had to go,but she did not like it. it was so bad that if she happened to be up and eating off some eggs and saw you coming, and you looked like you were going to open the lid to the egg house, she was in there in a flash pecking at your hands and scolding you. she would peck untill you dropped one then hurry up and cluster them back up and sit, daring you to come any closer. i decided , as did my 11 year old daughter, that she looked like she would be particularly delicious and that of all the chikens we should eat her first. but it ended,and she got the picture and evntually gave up. but i think she might still go in the freezer, shes mean. and as bos go, they are the most gentle docile birds ive got,and i prefer them to alot of others, there my favorite egg layers and i just like them alot. but something is wrong with this chickens attitude and shes the only bo ive ever known to be like that.
and about the egg laying, i just think they are great, ive had a double egg day more than once from some of my bos!

 

[olds cool]

These stories sound great. Could some of y'all tell where you got these fine laying BO? Thanks

 

[BWKatz]

Don't forget the leghorns... my sweet Eve has only missed 2 days since November 7 when she started. Even then the freezing snow didn't stop her long. They also start laying earlier than other breeds...17-22 wks vs 30-36wks average. She is very docile and friendly and comes to be petted. I got all mine from MY Pet Chicken.