Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[heatherscooby77]

Actually, under the proper conditions even a production breed will continue to lay well (though not every single day as in their first year) as long as they are properly taken care of. My production girls are well past their first year but are still my top layers with 5-6 eggs each per week. Most of my heritage girls come in with 4-5 eggs per week. I have a few EE who are 6-7 eggs per week like my production girls started out.

My point was, I have never seen a red sex link, laying for 10 years. After 3 years they are usually spent. It doesn't matter how well they are taken care of. They are not bred to lay for that long.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Actually, under the proper conditions even a production breed will continue to lay well (though not every single day as in their first year) as long as they are properly taken care of. My production girls are well past their first year but are still my top layers with 5-6 eggs each per week. Most of my heritage girls come in with 4-5 eggs per week. I have a few EE who are 6-7 eggs per week like my production girls started out.

My point was, I have never seen a red sex link, laying for 10 years.  After 3 years they are usually spent.  It doesn't matter how well they are taken care of.  They are not bred to lay for that long.

I never said any chicken would lay (or even likely live) 10 years. All I said was with proper care & nutrition they can still lay well even after the first year or too, their production just drops a bit as does production with a lot of breeds.

 

[LisaYolkUm]

Yes vicki it is very dissappointing. They will actually stop laying. If you want chickens that will lay longer you need to go with a heritage breed. If you get your chicks from a hatchery, even if they are not the hybrid egg breeds, most of them lay pretty well. It still is not for a long period of time. For example, I have a SLW hen from a breeder. She is 7 years old and still lays. A hatchery SLW would have quit after 3-4 years probably. So if you want your girls to make you breakfast, and lay longer. I would recommend getting chicks from a breeder.

here is a dumb question...................

what is a breeder vs hatchery..................

I am getting 5 chicks from Pickering Valley Feed in Exton................what I am getting .........hatchery , I imagine?

Columbian wyandotte
silver grey dorking
Easter egger
welsummer
buff orpington

are these all heritage breeds Or???

how long would these type of birds lay eggs?

 

[SilkieSensation]

 


Yes vicki it is very dissappointing.  They will actually stop laying.  If you want chickens that will lay longer you need to go with a heritage breed.  If you get your chicks from a hatchery, even if they are not the hybrid egg breeds, most of them lay pretty well.  It still is not for a long period of time.  For example, I have a SLW hen from a breeder.  She is 7 years old and still lays.  A hatchery SLW would have quit after 3-4 years probably.  So if you want your girls to make you breakfast, and lay longer.  I would recommend getting chicks from a breeder.

here is a dumb question...................

what is a breeder vs hatchery..................

I am getting 5 chicks from Pickering Valley Feed in Exton................what I am getting .........hatchery , I imagine?

Columbian wyandotte
silver grey dorking
Easter egger
welsummer
buff orpington

are these all heritage breeds Or???

how long would these type of birds lay eggs?

Those are heritage breeds but hatchery stock so have likely been bred more for production rather than "looks" (SOP). The EE are crosses to produce colored eggs. My EE are outlaying most of my heritage style birds. You don't have any breeds listed that are specifically bred for production only so they should all lay at least 4-5 years pretty well as long as they are well taken care of.

 

[fisherlady]

here is a dumb question...................

what is a breeder vs hatchery..................

I am getting 5 chicks from Pickering Valley Feed in Exton................what I am getting .........hatchery , I imagine?

Columbian wyandotte
silver grey dorking
Easter egger
welsummer
buff orpington

are these all heritage breeds Or???

how long would these type of birds lay eggs?

OK... here is my take on feeder vs hatchery... (feed mills and TSC may fall into either category depending on their chick source)

USUALLY..
Hatchery... is aiming for quantity, doesn't worry too much about minor irregularities in confirmation or feathering as long as the birds are pretty enough to make average back yard keepers happy
.... may emphasize egging numbers on some breeds to satisfy folks selling backyard eggs, but it may be to the detriment of the birds overall longevity for laying or even life span
.... aims for bigger broilers or meat birds, but may not pay as much attention to breeding broilers who are resistant to heart or leg problems
..... often have decent birds, but rarely produce exceptional examples of any breed
.... biggest + is that they function more year round than many breeders, usually can be a source of chicks or hatching eggs when you can't find them anywhere else
.... offer a bigger variety of birds at one source and often have rarer breeds (but quality of their breeding stock may not be the greatest)
.... some hatcheries do a good job, but researching their history and asking questions (either directly to the hatchery people or via social media with prior customers) will give you a better idea if a particular hatchery has the right birds for you.

Breeder... usually an individual who is involved in birds more for showing and/or preservation of a breed which they happen to like
.... good ones are very, very careful to breed only good examples of a breed or variety of a breed to ensure quality animals (feather patterning of barred rocks shows this clearly)
.... good ones will breed to improve the health of their stock and cull sickly animals from their breeding pens to achieve that goal
..... good ones will strive to maintain a breeds original characteristics as much as possible, they shouldn't breed against broodieness if being broody is a trait of the heritage breed
......biggest + is the quality control and reliable adherence to breeds Standard of Perfection (SOP) which you can expect to get from a breeders eggs or chicks
.... biggest - is that breeders often have limited availability of stock and sometimes it can be expensive... or even VERY expensive depending on the bird you want
.... breeders may not keep their 'breeding pens' active year round, so time of availability can also be limited

Now, understand that this is my general take on the differences between the two... but exceptions can occur. You may get a hatchery with an employee who happens to be a big enthusiast of a couple of breeds they carry and that person can really improve the quality of the animals they choose to breed and still keep up numbers (research will show some hatcheries are reputed to have 'quality' stock of some breeds, and not too good of stock in others)
You can have someone who calls themselves a breeder but in reality they aren't careful about keeping true to breed qualities in anything much more than feather pattern and you can get animals with poor health or personality from them.

I guess the closest thing I can equate it to is dog breeding... some folks spend their lives working with one or two breeds and have dogs worth paying big money for because they are so carefully bred for temperment and health and some folks get a 'popular breed' and as long as they have a male and female they keep producing puppies as long as they can find buyers, no matter what genetic faults or temperment problems the parent dogs have... in 5 years they pick another popular breed and start all over again...

Thankfully there are many more sources for information nowadays than there was 20 years ago... research can help weed out problems but remember, these are just generalizations... and there are certainly exceptions.

 

[dheltzel]

My point was, I have never seen a red sex link, laying for 10 years. After 3 years they are usually spent. It doesn't matter how well they are taken care of. They are not bred to lay for that long.

I've got some red sex link still laying well at 5 years or so. They don't lay every day like their first year, and that's why the commercial flocks replace them after a year - it's all about maximizing profits. If your goal is not maximum profit from each layer, then it's very feasible to keep even the commercial breeds and hybrids laying much longer. I nice heritage version of the breed might lay more "evenly" (meaning fewer eggs the first year, but slower drop off in the subsequent years), or maybe not. I don't think you'll find anything more than anecdotal evidence about which breeds, and strains of breeds lay well for 5 or more years. That sort of research is not interesting to commercial flocks, and is a significantly higher investment, so few (no) researchers will tackle that question.

I advise people to get a breed they like with known suitability for it's purpose. You probably take better care, and be more forgiving of "dry spells" if it's a breed you find personally interesting. Personally, I find the commercial breeds (both WH and SL) so BORING. But to each his own.

 

[SilkieSensation]

I have a wide variety in my layer flock & have a pretty good idea which hen lays each or even know for sure which hen on some. It gives me a good idea of which birds are laying the best & which the worst when I can tell almost every egg apart. It also lets me know which birds I want to stay away from & which I want more of the next time I get birds.

 

[fisherlady]

Lisa....
Heritage vs production breeds

They are general terms based on history and crossing of breeds.
The 'heritage' are simply a long standing established breed which was most likely developed by back yard folks who needed a bird to fit their environment or family needs... these breeds weren't developed for show or to produce eggs for an egg factory situation, they were established to provide a steady, healthy and reliable performance for a community. Many are named for the area they were developed...
New Hampshires
Rhode Island Reds
The 'rocks' (Plymouth, Barred, White)
Cornish
Although all breeds are actually a result of selective breeding the 'heritage' breeds were established generations ago and 2 heritage birds bred together will produce a heritage offspring that 'breeds true' (meaning it will be a copy of it's parents within reason)

Production birds are just what the name implies.... birds bred to provide production of eggs or meat.. these birds are usually a mix of two breeds who have the meat or egg characteristic the hatchery wants, so by combining them they get a very efficient bird who will produce a lot of eggs or meat. Longevity of the resulting bird may not be what either parent breed had though, they cn often 'wear themselves out' sooner, though as Silkie said, with the right food and care they can do well for more than the 1 or 2 years most folks give them.
.... red comets
... gold comets
... red and black sex links (which just means that the parents were of 'eggy' breeds and colors that when mated produce male of one color and female of another)
...some of the meat birds such as red and black rangers, free rangers and even Cornish X...

I generally think of 'heritage' as something you would have expected to see in a back yard in the 1940's and production birds as something you would expect to see at an 'egg business'.

Hope I didn't confuse it even more for you!

 

[SilkieSensation]

I stsnd still for 2 seconds & get a foot warmer...lol

 

[Katt66]

I never said any chicken would lay (or even likely live) 10 years. All I said was with proper care & nutrition they can still lay well even after the first year or too, their production just drops a bit as does production with a lot of breeds.

My Aunt has 2 Red Sex links left out of a batch of 25 she ordered through the feedstore five years ago. These two just this past fall stopped laying for the first time. Yes, a lot of it does depend on breed. But no chicken is done laying after only a year. If a chicken who's been cranking out an egg a day for a year and a half suddenly starts taking a day or two off during the week, it doesn't mean they're spent, just that they're changing their laying pattern a bit as they mature. Heck, my 2 Sebrights are laying 6 to 7 eggs a week right now. I dont' expect them to continue to perform that trick for the next three years though. I'm sure eventually they'll become tired of competing with the White Leghorn for "Top Layer of Buck Mountain" and taper off to their breed's more reasonable production of 2 to 3 eggs a week. I won't get rid of them when they do. Just be happy that it means I'll get to keep them for a few years longer as they give me many many more eggs over a longer period of time.