Realistic egg production from various breeds

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

Charts from presumably reliable sources such as metzer seem to contradict each other, listing runners anywhere from 200-300 eggs per year and pekins from 100-200. Obviously if one is keeping them lit, or warm or whatever thy will lay more but in real life what is realistic? I have seen Campbell’s listed from 200-350 seems like some wild reporting.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I have had three Khaki hens. My first did lay about 350 eggs her first year, after she started laying, without any supplemental light. The other two never did as well, taking a few days off every few weeks, but they still laid a lot of eggs. The first hen came from a hatchery. The other two, came from a local family. I think those numbers are pretty accurate but it is going to depend on where you get them as well as the individual bird.

 

[Texag87]

The K/C is reliable for 300 eggs a year. Rouens about half as much.

 

[Isaac 0]

Age, Climate, Setup, Stock, and management practices are all going to affect somewhat how much your duck is going to lay. Those are just "guesstimates" done by Metzer, to show which breeds will lay how much.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’ve never counted how many eggs my Runners an Buffs lay in a year but I’ll just say it’s a lot. So many we give many to the food bank in our town.

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

Thanks, just seems all over the map, I realize many claims are ideal circumstances and I also have no idea of the breed stock of any of my birds, some from TSC and some from even more mysterious origins.
In the end they lay what they lay, but the drastic difference in information is somewhat confusing.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’m sure you’ll have more than you can eat. Once they start it’s non stop for quite a while. My Runners being the best layers of my 3 breeds.

 

[3bird]

We live in Maine, and we have silver Appleyards. We do not provide supplemental light, but we did start adding supplemental heat this past winter. We got upwards of 250 eggs/year from our best layers.

 

[Ratchnick]

What ppl dont realize is one strain of peken might lay 100 eggs a year and another 300. Environment plays a good part but so does genitics. The egg counts that hatcheries list are not guestimates, that's on average what their ducks will produce. Some hatcheries like metzers give two numbers which represent natural and artificial light.

 

[HalfWayUpAMountain]

My KC's are like egg laying machines although they do go on egg strike for various reasons or because they fancy it.

Two of them were close to daily layers and other two were more like every other day.

They are close to 4 years old now and its slowing down / they are invoking egg strikes more often.

Their offspring (the Bufflings) who are a year old are probably five eggs a week each and nothing puts them off.

Never had artificial light - their first two and half years were in the UK so they barely had natural light either (anyone who has visited the UK knows what I am talking about....it can be a little grey).