Runt Hen laying the largest eggs

[chickencrazylady]

My little girl Brownie must be a runt, she is smaller than my frizzles. But I have been in the coop when she has layed an egg in an empty nesting box, and then seen my Raven go in right after and lay an egg which are still the smallest. What gives, how is this possible, I feel for Brownie every day she lays!! Lol

My little Brownie. She's the on in the middle on the roost.

My very big girl Raven.

Last spring I was given Raven's mother, HennyPenny (She unfortunately was mauled by our dog, and died in my arms) and Raven is her daughter, don't know what breed she is a mix of some sort. Raven is very much like her mom and is huge, I am guessing at least 6-8 pounds. ( In above pic, little black hen is Inkie on the right and is also HennyPenny's daughter) She had been laying for about 10 days now is still pint size eggs from her????? Weird is what I say.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Couple of things. Firstly, the size of the chicken in no way indicates how big an egg she will lay. The most efficient layers of large eggs are usually slight birds. And one of the more impressive egg-to-bird-size ratios I've seen has been the little bantam game hens (yes, their eggs are small, but compared to the size of their body they are laying larger eggs than most much larger breeds). If you look at all of the commercial egg laying breeds, they are all smaller...no Jersey Giants or Brahmas there. Partly that's because the smaller birds mature to egg laying age faster, but the fact that these smaller breeds also lay larger eggs more regularly plays into that too. Also, you don't say how old Brownie is. The eggs a hen lays her first year, before her first real adult molt, are pullet eggs and they are usually smaller than eggs laid after the first adult molt. If Brownie is a more mature hen and Raven has only been laying for just under two weeks it makes perfect sense that her eggs are bigger than Raven's. Raven's eggs will get bigger, promise! But it usually happens slowly over the course of months.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is not at all unusual for smaller hens to lay larger eggs. Different breeds have been developed for different things. Smaller hens can devote more of the nutrition they eat into eggs instead of maintaining their greater body mass. Even within the same breed I've had smaller hens lay larger eggs than their bigger sisters. You don't know the breeds in her background and I don't either, but nothing you said sounds strange to me.

You probably know when a pullet starts to lay, the eggs are normally pretty small. They will get larger with time.

 

[chickencrazylady]

Quote:
Both Raven and Brownie were hatched out in the first week of July 2011