REINVIGORATED ON STEROIDS!!!

[gsim]

I've been keeping chickens since '08. Have noticed that when I send off for replacement pullets, the original bunch suddenly begin to lay eggs to beat the band shortly after the young ones start up. This happens every time I go through this process. I can't be the only one to have experienced this. And it isn't a fluke either. I am currently experiencing this for the 4th time since '08. The two of us are getting way more eggs than we can eat from the 11 hens we have.

BTW, I have one original pullet, a Plymouth Barred Rock, who is 10 yrs old. Doubt she is a contributor now, but her comb is still red, not faded, and she may be among the last off of the roost in the AM, but she seems hale and hearty nonetheless. I have another who is 7 and three more who are 5 yrs old.

We don't discriminate due to age at Cluckmore House & Gardens.

 

[aart]

So the springs that you don't get new pullets(chicks or POL's?),
the older birds are not as productive?

 

[gsim]

True to some degree. They gradually slow their output after age of 2 yrs. Now before I bought this last shipment of 3 chicks, they had quit laying altogether about August. From then until the newbies started laying (near year's end), they never laid a single egg, but no illness or any apparent trouble. The very week the newbies started, the older gals started up, just like the other three times in past years. We have seen as high as 9 eggs a day from all 11 hens. They routinely average 5 to 7 daily. And I can tell from the shade, size and shape which ones are contributing and when they started in. The older 8 did not all start up at once, but two 5-yr olds who had been the rock stars of the previous year started in just days of the others. Some 3 yr olds took awhile longer to start up again (Rhode Island Reds).

As I said tho, this is not a new thing for me. This is the 4th time it has happened in the 10 yrs I've been keeping chickens. I suspect my two oldest (10 and 7) are not laying at all. The three newbies are white leghorns, as is one of the 5 yr olds. They eat less and lay more eggs than any other breed.