Prediciting Number of Eggs

[Airilith]

I was wondering if anyone's come up with a formula to predict about how many eggs their chickens will lay.

Something like: # of hens X 3eggs/wk

I've heard 3 eggs/hen/wk is about average.

And I know that chickens will lay eggs for years, but don't they take off for molt? So can you safely assume that they will lay from week 25 until week what (50, 60, etc?)? And then from week 60(?) until their next molt (week 120?) how many eggs a week would you predict?

I promised my SO that I would come up with a business plan before we purchased the chickens. I need to justify more pets.

And yes I realize that the number of eggs per hen would be breed dependent, but I'm just looking for an average.

Thanks!
Airi

 

[chicknjane]

I believe the rule of thumb estimate is 18 hens will lay 12 eggs a day. The average egg/hen/week is probably closer to 5 depending on the breed.

I remember reading somewhere that hens have a determinate number of eggs they can lay within their lifetime, something like 3000 and that they can lay for 12 -14 years. I believe that is in Story's Guide to Raising Chickens.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I think if you want to do a "best case scenario" with your math, 6 chickens = 6 eggs/day. I have 6 chickens, every other week or every 2 weeks I will get only 5 on 1 or 2 days but the majority of time, it's each girl laying 1 egg each day! I expect this will slow down for molting and/or winter lack of daylight but so far (they have been laying for 5 months) that is the deal.