numbers for brown-egg layer breeds

[digitS']

When I was a kid on the farm, we didn't have many chickens but I thought I had some sort of idea of what was going on in egg ranching.

What was happening then was that there was only a limited interest in brown egg production. I'm sure it varied geographically but my thinking was that Rhode Island Reds were the dominant brown-egg breed.

I go back in the literature now and see that Barred Rocks played an important role a century ago. That's a little surprising but it was certainly before my time

.
I can still remember the first sex-linked hens I saw about 40 years ago

. My brother bought them and was very happy with the choice but, once again, my family wasn't involved in commercial egg production. Brother's operation was and is just a small farm.

There have been any number of BYC posts that state the important commercial value of sex-links. I don't doubt that this could be true but I've always thought that they were likely to be more suited for a small flock situation. When I look at the ISA site, however, I see sex-linked and probably these aren't just for backyard folks. Then there are the "production red" types.

What are there - - more chickens than people in the world, right

? (I remember reading that after the UN - FAO went into the old USSR, they found Australorps to be the dominant layer breed there - another surprise!)

Are there any US population numbers for brown-egg layer breeds out there? Have we moved completely beyond Rhode Island Reds as a commercial breed, for example, and if so - to what?

Steve

 

[mikarod]

Well, the commercial birds used right now are the Red-sex links. Mainly because it costs MUCH less to sex these birds than using the Asian tradition of vent sexing birds.

As for population numbers....GOOD LUCK! lol!

There are SO many mixtures out there that it would be practically impossible to find every single bird. However NAIS is attempting to do that right now...in the form of microchipping.

 

[digitS']

Thanks mikarod. Just finding out which company produces what % of the layers may be difficult. What initial breeds (strains) were used . . . probably proprietary information.

A little more searching on this and what I came up with was rather startling in some ways! This is from the Canadian government’s Agriculture & Agri-Food agency . Notice that the commercial flock doesn’t show up until the 5th generation.

Pure Blood Line Breeding Stock (great great-grandparents) - hatching eggs and chicks
1st generation
|
Expanded Blood Lines (great-grandparents) - hatching eggs and chicks
2nd generation
|
Crosses (grandparents) - hatching eggs and chicks
3rd generation
|
Multiplier Flocks (Hatchery Supply Flocks)- hatching eggs and chicks
4th generation
|
Commercial hatching eggs and chicks
5th generation

 

[mikarod]

Hm...I do suppose it WOULD be alot like a commercial broiler breeding situation.

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

Good luck on finding numbers. A lot of farms don't even say how many chickens they have. and for the breeds. That would be even harder. When I bought my sexlinks from one of the main commercial hatcheries I had 3 types to choose from. They were sexlinks but they all had different characteristics like, lay more, Produce faster, laying age quicker, etc.