Pullets start laying in freezing December!

[digitS']

It seems to me that the "ordinary chicken" is a Red Junglefowl which lives in an environment with about 12 hours of sunlight, every day of the year.

During the annual breeding season, the junglefowl hen lays 1 or 2 clutches of 5 to 12 eggs.

Steve

 

[dancingbear]

While DNA proves they're the ancestors of all the domestic breeds, to say the ordinary chicken IS a Red Junglefowl, is sort of like saying the domestic dog is a wolf.

I've never owned any Red Junglefowl, and not a lot of people keep them, except maybe in the Hawiian islands, where they're common, or in Asia, where they originated. Maybe you live in an area where a great many people keep Red Junglefowl. I've never seen any around here, that I know of.

What I meant by ordinary chickens, (when I was comparing them to battery chickens) is domestic chickens that people keep at home, rather than commercial battery chickens. I didn't mean the ancestor of all domestic breeds, that hardly anybody actually raises.

I have 4 dogs. A sheep dog, two Lab mixes, and a funny little brown dog that's Bassett hound and who-knows-what. According to prevailing theory, they're all descended from wolves. That's not the same thing as being wolves.

 

[digitS']

When we talk about "normal conditions for chickens," we have to recognize that they are now kept all over the world in widely differing conditions. Still, they were originally genetically geared by an environment where they evolved.

A normal hen's existence would be darn hard to define. And since there is now a multitude of production hens (many of which are available for the backyard chicken-keeper) - maybe those are the normal chickens. Whatever the case, in Alberta Canada or northern Michigan and elsewhere, outdoor conditions are far removed from their ancestral environment as Dancing Bear points out.

In commercial production, with temperatures kept around 70°F and lights on 14 hours a day, conditions are far more similar to the ancestral chicken's environment than my backyard with its 8 hours of sunlight and current -3°F temperature.

Steve

 

[dancingbear]

In other words, there's no such thing as an average chicken. Well, I can certainly agree with that. Look at the differences between breeds. Compare a Jersey Giant and a Silkie, or any number of widely differing breeds.

My point is you can't say the ordinary chicken is a Red Junglefowl, and be any more accurate than if you stated that the ordinary chicken is a Naked Neck Turken.

 

[digitS']

We could say that the Jersey Giant, Silkie and Turken are the results of artificial selection from a common ancestor still represented by the Red Junglefowl. The junglefowl is not, itself, a breed of chicken.

This prototypical chicken could serve as an original type or example.

When we talk of "normal conditions" or an "ordinary" chicken - it seems to me that we would have to take this bird into account. Having some sort of standard, and not one that is simple drawn from our imaginations, allows us to think about a typical or, perhaps a normal. It may be a way to talk about abnormalities or deficiencies.

The commercial outfits takes advantage of what has been programmed into the bird through 1,000's of years of natural selection in its original environment. Beyond that, they take advantage of generations of selective breeding and hybridization - as does the backyard chicken keeper. However, the qualities of the junglefowl are part and parcel of all chickens.

Steve

 

[new chicken mommy]

My hens started laying 7 weeks ago. we had a power outage from an icestorm and no lights for three almost 4 days and i got 36 eggs each day out of 40 hens the most i have ever got!! funky chickens.

 

[skeeter]

why dont you two go argue somewhere else,good grief

My Aunt bought 7 chicks in march 07,they started laying Oct/07 they laid 5 to 7 eggs a day untill the middle of Oct 08,now she is only getting 1 or 2 a day,ive read that the first year of laying is the most productful,so after 18 months of age the production goes down
my hes arnt doing that well,and some of mine are offspring of hers,so who knows
oh,she didnt give any extra light either

 

[ItsSuzzie]

My 2008 Chicks are starting to lay, the RIR were the first to start up. I even got eggs in the snow. Waiting for my Ameraucana's to start. They are holding out on me. Should be soon, Combs are getting Red...I can't wait.

Need eggs for the bator, first hatch bombed. Want to try again.
I do know my RIR eggs are fertile, good Rooster. Now if I can just them to stop pecking the eggs, bad girls...lol

So, all in all, The Leghorns lay three a day. They win.

Good girls!

 

[CATRAY44]

My red sex lincs have rarely missed a day since Sept. My EE lays for 2 or 3 days, takes a day off and starts right up again. My bantums who were laying, have not resumed since molting. My other 2 pullets who are old enough have not yet begun to lay. No added light.