Yes, true; I think I need to elucidate my meaning a bit clearer. I'm talking about the relationship between 'Commercial Production Layers' and the specific layer pellets. I'm aware of these characteristics you mention and the reasons why they were bred into them, but I have the opinion that these high production layers are not actually the healthiest birds for us since they cannot even remain in full health while performing to artificially (layer pellet) assisted and dependent genetic potential. If you allow them a diet that gives them the opportunity to restore their feathers, they don't lay as much; if you give them the diet they were developed on as a breed, they lay more eggs but aren't in such good shape. This mutually exclusive state of affairs, as far as I can see, means they're not laying the best eggs for human health while on the pellets formulated specifically to compel them to give the available protein to the constant egg laying even though their body is in need of the protein to restore itself. In other words, I don't think the 'eggs OR feathers, not both' situation is really a genetic trait that can be considered harmless or irrelevant health-wise. I think it's symptomatic of a badly unbalanced breed that needs more work on the genetics so they can supply their own protein needs (from more natural sources diet wise) as well as support such heavy production without dependence on specially formulated pellets to maintain the high output. I don't believe you get healthy eggs from a less than healthy hen; eggs themselves are not an inherent sign of total health.
Just my opinion and I'm not knocking anyone who keeps C.P.L's or feeds them pellets; each to their own, it's just my reasons for not doing the same. My family has more serious health issues than many so there isn't an option to consume less healthy foods if we can do better by ourselves.
I've read industry guidebooks detailing why they can't maintain good feathers and high egg production at one and the same time and I think it's a breed issue that hopefully will be overcome in future. It's also worth considering (at least in Australia) that all of these commercial layer breeds are related and come from limited family pools, which in fact the industry itself has been publicly fretting about. Trouble is spotted on the horizon due to lack of genetic diversity. These hens are of breeds developed to run themselves into the ground to make a nice round competitive number on the annual egg scoreboard. It's very driven by commercial chook math --- at date X after X amount of feed and X amount of financial input the egg quota had better equal X --- or else! This makes sense in industry terms but in the more esoteric terminology of health, we don't benefit much from consuming products from any sub-par animal. That's gotten us where we are today... Growing our own for our health's sake. Commercial farming success is not yet linked to nor due to full animal health. C.P.Layers in their current genetic expression/'incarnation' are symptomatic of this. It's not so much the genes that cause feather loss in production layers, it's their system's reaction to the layer pellets their breed was developed in conjunction with. Their genes respond to the pellets by overproducing eggs at the expense of the body's other protein needs. When you put them on a natural diet they're a little less productive but their presupposed genetic trait of feather loss suddenly somehow is no longer a trait. Hope I'm making sense... Need a coffee, lol...
Since I'm trying to grow for my own and my family's health, not to sell, that's not an objective in line with our needs, so that's why I take them off the layer pellets; they can then achieve supply of the protein needs they were unable to meet on the layer pellets, which allows them strong plumage, and to give better quality eggs. This will result in a few less eggs a year from each hen (but they are noticeably better quality which is my objective as I'm not a seller.) To the very best production layers from commercial bloodlines, the standard layer pellets are akin to a command entered into a program telling it to repeat a self-deleterious action ad infinitum until they either die in service or burn themselves out and get culled and replaced.
When layer breed eggs are tested for nutrient profiles and compared to basically any other breed's eggs, they're very poor quality. Organically fed and freerange layer's eggs do much better, but still not as good as the less-prolific breeds. The best laying breeds are determined as such by their sheer output every year rather than the actual nutritional quality of the produce. To achieve this they are bred to put the vast majority of all their intake of protein into constant egg production, which the layer pellets are formulated to support, so their feathers are weaker and they moult harder, and their flesh tends to be stringy, tasteless and tough.
The most heavy laying of these production layer breeds were developed on artificial diets that work with their specified genetics to force them to keep up a hectic laying pace all year at the expense of much vitality. I don't think the products of very heavy-production animals of any species and any overly commercially oriented breed are better for us than their slightly less productive relatives. As far as I can see it's a false economy, quantity over quality. No animal kept under any constant stress of any kind produces anything I consider a truly wholesome meal. An egg a day for a year (or slightly under) when not receiving enough protein to maintain full health is physiological stress; I think it's possible though to breed new strains that can receive full nutrition, enjoy full health, and still be so productive. I think these current commercial breeds reliant on layer pellets and sub-par health for full production quotas are a slight misstep or wrong turn but better strains will emerge in future. The backyard breeders of these production layers will likely drive that step, since they are seeking the egg count to remain as high as possible but tend to keep their birds on far superior diets to what battery and barn hens receive. Animals aren't machines so while we can tweak the breeds to be very efficient and productive, once we overdo it and the animal isn't able to maintain full health AND top production simultaneously, we're not getting the best health for ourselves either. Since my health is to be gained in the quality, I need to ensure it; if I were a commercial layer breeder/keeper my goals would obviously be quite different and I would be wanting that egg-a-day-all-year-from-each-hen idea.
More stuff I read in industry books on production layers: the commercial breeders bred their bodies to be smaller so they were more economical in housing and intake and didn't have lots of bone and muscle to grow before laying and maintain during and after. They weren't measuring feed economy as an inherited trait until fairly recently though so many of these hens must eat far more than chooks that size, even laying daily, should eat because they can't assimilate it as well as many other breeds. Some broiler chicks that were tested for feed economy were eating three chicken's meals and only processing under a third of all they ate.
Not to knock any who keep some birds only for eggs and others only for breeding, either. I know a lot of layers do have great lives compared to plenty of other chooks. My focus is more on an old style family flock, as some people have called it. All-purpose, sort of. I'm breeding for every quality in every bird rather than isolating them for isolated or mutually-divergent-if-overemphasized traits, even though a jack of all trades is a master of none. I don't want semi-crippled perpetually immature blobs who can't go free ranging and enjoy life, on one end of the scale, nor on the other hand do I want a constantly protein-needy egg-laying tube on legs who will be worth nothing more when her short period of service is over. If there's any one trait I want them to be masters of it's hardiness or 'rude' health, lol.
I want them to serve my needs and those of my family but also enjoy their lives and produce steadily good offspring, some of which will continue breeding. Any member of my flock starts off as an egg with a fair amount of equal potential; it has the potential to become a pet or meat or a breeder or layer, or all four, (lol) and I eat my breeder's eggs too when I'm not breeding them as I need to know what qualities they're passing onto the eggs. I also eat my ex breeders. They need to have good health, good flesh, good eggs, good social/flock mentalities, and last and least good looking feather pigmentation is nice. As they (used to) say, no good cow is a bad color.
