RIR Egg Size

[careeka22]

I’m pretty sure we have discussed strains before as compared to breeds. Take anything you read about things like this about breeds with two grains of salt, three of pepper, and a dash or tabasco. Breeds do have general tendencies but what traits the person that selects which chickens get to breed select for will determine what traits those chickens have regardless of breed. If they purposely hatch larger eggs the flock will lay larger eggs. If they do not select for larger eggs the flock will probably not lay eggs as large. Most hatcheries do not specifically select for larger eggs. How you feed them will have an effect on how big the eggs are too. Higher protein diets will give you larger eggs.

As you have seen, when they start laying the eggs can be pretty small. That’s to protect the immature pullet from laying an egg so large it can harm her. As the pullet matures the eggs will get gradually get larger. That effect is more pronounced when they are pretty young but it continues to a certain extent until they molt.

They should stop laying during their first adult molt. When they start back up again you should notice an increase in egg size. That’s probably when they eggs will reach the size you can expect for them to lay. They may get a tiny bit bigger, especially after later molts, but not much. I encourage you to continue weighing the eggs so you can track it yourself. That way you can determine if I’m feeding you a line or not.

This is great info! I didn't know this but have noticed that the eggs we are getting this spring after the first molt and months with no eggs are huge!

 

[jthornton]

Do those dips correspond with your construction activities...changes in the coop can throw some of them off.

Will be interesting to see long term, if you continue the data collecting.

I'm not sure if the dips correspond to any construction activities, however some severe weather like thunderstorms were around that general time IIRC.

I plan on collecting data everyday. I'm also planning on trying to keep separate data for the upcoming Cinnamon Queens if possible. Gotta get the shed converted before I order them though so I'm thinking it might be later in the summer.

JT

 

[jthornton]

I looked at the weather history for April and the day before some stopped laying was a weather event. Twice thunder storms and once snow. So it appears to be tied directly to some upsetting event.

JT

 

[jthornton]

Also I noticed that they pullets that did lay an egg after the weather event did so much later in the day up to 4:30PM. It's been 4 days since the last T storm and today all 9 have laid by 12:45. Interesting for sure... I'll be keeping better track of weather and other events from now on.

JT

 

[jthornton]

Looks like week 35 we had a slight increase in egg size, enough to make me start putting the large eggs in a separate carton for my weekend breakfasts. Also as noted by my friend in England having 110% for laying was a bit optimistic so I manually set the upper limit for that graph to 100%. Egg size seems to be a gradual increase in size.



JT

 

[Ridgerunner]

So approximately a 50% increase by week 36. That's an interesting milestone.

 

[jthornton]

I had my first day a few days ago with the average weight of the days production at a large egg size of 57.5. I've been getting more large eggs lately with 70.3% medium and 29.2% large for the month compared to 14.0% large last month. so far. Nothing like the sign at Orscheln's says lol. They claim Extra Large to Jumbo eggs from a RIR, I'm doubting that now. Interesting as the weight of the eggs continue to increase the percent laying each day has decreased to the mid 80's. The pullets are a bit over 9 months old now.



JT

 

[jthornton]

Oh I forgot about my egg size by month distribution chart I made... I think the graphic data is easier to interpret than a bunch of number sometimes. Interesting in April I quit getting double yolk eggs so no more XL or J size eggs.



JT

 

[jthornton]

Here is the latest table on their egg laying.

Month	<PW	PW	S	M	L	XL	J	%	Age
December	17.4%	73.9%	4.3%	0%	4.3%	0%	0%	21.3%	18-20
January	1.5%	28.4%	63.7%	3.5%	1.0%	1.0%	1.0%	72.0%	20-24
February	0%	0.5%	55.3%	41.9%	0.5%	0.5%	0.5%	92.5%	24-28
March	0%	0%	7.9%	87.0%	4.3%	0%	0.8%	90.7%	28-32
April	0%	0%	0%	85.1%	14.0%	0%	0%	89.6%	32-36
May	0%	0%	0.4%	65.9%	33.6%	0%	0%	83.2%	36-41
June	0%	0%	0%	56.9%	43.1%	0%	0%	80.7%	41-45

<PW = Less than 35g
PW = 35g - 42g
S = 43g - 49g
M = 50g - 56g
L = 57g - 63g
XL = 64g - 70g
J 71g and larger
% = the percentage of possible eggs
Age = age in weeks during that month

JT

 

[aart]

% column is percentage of total birds laying?...laying daily?