Opinions on best egg layers

[Farmgirl0422]

Black sex links and australorps are great layers and very docile!

 

[Mr King]

Have you got your chickens yet?

 

[Steve P]

Yes I have

 

[Mr King]

Great.! I'll see different breeds, what are they?

 

[jerry s]

Red stars and black stars are great layers of large brown eggs. RIR, BAR ROCKS good layers. I have 16 layers, get around 10-14 a day Isell my eggs pretty fast.

 

[threescompany]

I only have 3 hens, an Australorp, RIR and an EE and they all lay practically everyday!

 

[elbricker]

I bought 3 leghorn chicks 3years ago, planning to free range, before considering the coloring issue(first chicks I ever bought). I still have them & they have free ranged very well. One was badly injured by a dog,out all night in freezing rain & nearly at the point of death when I found her next morning--took her in the bathroom & resuscitated her with the blow dryer & warm water--vet gave me shots to give her (antibiotic with pain releiver). I babied her for a week & went through several tubes of neosporin on her terrible wounds. It took her a few weeks to get back in the groove but she's been giving me an egg nearly every day!

 

[sashasmom]

My Australorp is a sweetheart. I babied my cochin and she is my least friendly. But my Australorp runs to me when I go outside, lets us hold her, is gentle and sweet. I think a lot of it is how you deal with them when they are babies. Plus she lays everyday!

 

[SouthernStorm]

My Production Reds started laying at 18 wks and have laid a jumbo egg 6-7 days a week ever since, but they are one of the more common looking chickens in my opinion. If you are looking for more feather variations AND steady laying I would recommend Marans, Orpingtons, Ameraucanas, and Salmon Faverolles. They all lay a good 5-6 days a week and come in a huge variety of colors. I have 13 hens at present and still only get about 7-8 eggs a day. The most I've ever collected in 1 day was 12 eggs, but that has only happened twice in 2 years. Unless you are looking to start a business selling eggs then I wouldn't worry about getting an egg 7 days a week from every hen. Hens will only lay a finite amount of eggs in their first few years before stopping altogether, and the more eggs they crank out in a year, the fewer years of laying you will get out of them. I say get a variety of breeds and just enjoy the rainbow of eggs!

 

[bruceha2000]

My Production Reds started laying at 18 wks and have laid a jumbo egg 6-7 days a week ever since, but they are one of the more common looking chickens in my opinion. If you are looking for more feather variations AND steady laying I would recommend Marans, Orpingtons, Ameraucanas, and Salmon Faverolles. They all lay a good 5-6 days a week and come in a huge variety of colors. I have 13 hens at present and still only get about 7-8 eggs a day. The most I've ever collected in 1 day was 12 eggs, but that has only happened twice in 2 years. Unless you are looking to start a business selling eggs then I wouldn't worry about getting an egg 7 days a week from every hen. Hens will only lay a finite amount of eggs in their first few years before stopping altogether, and the more eggs they crank out in a year, the fewer years of laying you will get out of them. I say get a variety of breeds and just enjoy the rainbow of eggs!

Your experience with Salmon Favorelles does not match mine. They were doing OK their first winter (born in June, 2012) but shut down for a month mid February. Even the Cubalaya kept laying. Then they went broody so down a week plus again. Then down for their first moult. One quit laying the beginning of August and didn't lay again until mid Feb. The other laid maybe 3 a week during moult (which is remarkable in my flock) and laid until the end of January, then quit for 3 weeks. Then last summer (now 2 years old) they did the broody thing again a few times, down for 1.5 to 2 weeks each time then moulted. The one that laid well her second winter shut laid all of August then shut down until mid February - 5.5 months without even 1 egg. The other shut down the beginning of October through February. They have both been broody twice since mid March.

If my girls are representative, I wouldn't put them in the "good egg layer" group and their eggs are the higher side of USDA Small to the lower end of Medium. The only breed I have that are worse layers than the SFs are the Cubalayas and they aren't expected to lay more than 2 or 3 a week. My EE that was taken by a fox a year ago laid about the same number of eggs in the year and a half she laid as one of my SFs has in her nearly 3 year life and that EE wasn't on the top of the productivity list.