What breed is the best year round brown egg layer?

[Beekissed]

I use a ziptie around their legs...not tight, mind you. After everyone has been cleared for egg laying, I can mark them next time by removing their tie. Then all the ones with zipties are the "unmarked for layers" group.

I check them the most thoroughly during peak egg laying months like Feb/Mar. If they aren't laying daily by the end of March, they aren't going to.

I also do a light cull in the fall. By a light cull, I just clear out any birds that didn't lay well in the summer, didn't recover feathers from last year's moult, any barebacked hens. This one is more tricky due to the fact that most birds slow down laying during the moult and this can carry into the fall/winter.

 

[Cowgirl71]

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Thank you!!! This does sound like a very good reliable method, very similar to what the vets did a few weeks ago when they preg-checked our cows (except he went in up to his shoulder, LOL). I wonder why I didn't think of this...

When you first tried doing this, did you injure any hens? How much slack do you give your hens during the molting season, etc.? And how do you "mark" them?

Gosh, I'm more of a farm girl than I thought! I'm actually looking forward to finding a few pairs of latex gloves and palpating my 53 older hens some time in the next couple weeks, when I find the time, LOL.

Gee, would you be interested in selling hatching eggs this spring? Sounds like you've been strictly culling for egg production over the last three years and so have some really nice production stock...

 

[Beekissed]

When you first tried doing this, did you injure any hens? How much slack do you give your hens during the molting season, etc.? And how do you "mark" them?

Never have injured any hens. My small finger is not intrusion to a hen that emits a huge, hard egg each day and lets a roo stand on her, dance a jig and consumate. It is all done very gently and slowly, with intent. No jamming of fingers to the third knuckle and digging around in there!

I give my known layers a good bit of slack during the fall, but not in peak laying season. As mentioned before, I use a ziptie marking system.

I have a small group(13) of select layers...but, unfortunately, this may be their last season for consistent laying. I have a Black Aussie that has made it to her fourth year and the rest are in their third year of consistent laying. I will be trying to isolate their particular eggs before next cull and let my next broody hatch their progeny, if I can. If that fails, I will incubate and hope for the best.​

 

[briteday]

Quote:
Never have injured any hens. My small finger is not intrusion to a hen that emits a huge, hard egg each day and lets a roo stand on her, dance a jig and consumate. It is all done very gently and slowly, with intent. No jamming of fingers to the third knuckle and digging around in there!

I give my known layers a good bit of slack during the fall, but not in peak laying season. As mentioned before, I use a ziptie marking system.

I have a small group(13) of select layers...but, unfortunately, this may be their last season for consistent laying. I have a Black Aussie that has made it to her fourth year and the rest are in their third year of consistent laying. I will be trying to isolate their particular eggs before next cull and let my next broody hatch their progeny, if I can. If that fails, I will incubate and hope for the best.

Could you provide a bit more detail about feeling around inside? From my anatomy knowledge, the intestines would be downward from the vent? just inside below the vent? And do you use any type of lubricant on the glove to prevent injury to the chicken? I've been using the pelvic bone spread so now I want to compare my notes to this method. I also have a few soft shell and jelly egg layers that I'm trying to figure out right now (separating them into various coops as I eliminate certain possibilities) so I'll have to wait a bit to try this so as not to break a soft shell inside one of them. Dang, I want to go out and try this!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Could you provide a bit more detail about feeling around inside? From my anatomy knowledge, the intestines would be downward from the vent? just inside below the vent? And do you use any type of lubricant on the glove to prevent injury to the chicken? I've been using the pelvic bone spread so now I want to compare my notes to this method. I also have a few soft shell and jelly egg layers that I'm trying to figure out right now (separating them into various coops as I eliminate certain possibilities) so I'll have to wait a bit to try this so as not to break a soft shell inside one of them. Dang, I want to go out and try this!!!

I tried lubricant, but it comes off with the first bird and they are pretty greasy in there anyway. I hold my birds on their back and tilt their rears towards the ceiling a bit, rt. forefinger into the vent, in and up ~or down, in this position~towards the backbone. You will feel the egg through the membrane of the intestine. You won't have to be in there for even more than a second before you feel this hard shape.

Lubricant is really not needed- but you can use it if it makes you feel better- and I've never inflicted injury to my hens. I'm a nurse.....digital exams are my milieu. Believe it or not, hens have a lot more room to examine than humans when it comes to sphincters...their's is looser and more accustomed to expansion, I would imagine.

One sign of a good layer is a loose and moist vent, so this fact helps if you have a good laying flock.

If you know you have chickens that are consistently laying soft shells or no shells, these are good birds to target for elimination. If you are providing the correct nutrition and most of your birds have good, formed eggs and just these few are not on a regular basis, these are chickens that may always have problems. Keep the best, get rid of the rest.​

 

[speedy2020]

Where do you get a good stock of australorp? I purchased 3 autralorp and 1 speckled sussex from Welp. The speckled sussex is great, but the australorp is another story. They are 1 month old and I have a hard time touching them. They are very jumpy. I don't have that problem with my RIR, Marans cross chicks.

 

[Beekissed]

Why are you touching them?

I never touch my flock unless I need to do so. This is usually done at night when they can be quietly plucked from their roosts.

Why is it that humans think all animals want them to touch them? They are a prey animal...a small one. Unless you have conditioned them to being touched by using food as an inducement, it is likely your chickens will not just naturally want to be touched. This does not mean they are "flighty" or "wild"...it means they are acting on instinct that is natural to them.

Dogs and cats like to be petted. Pet them. Leave the poor birds to do what comes natural to them and this is not being petted by large predators.

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

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Ditto thus far for me....sex links have far outlaid any of the others...BO's don't lay daily, SLW's eggs are still small, EE's are slowly getting there and they lay more often than the BO's, BR's don't lay daily...2 lay small eggs...one lays large but not very often.

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

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Most of my flock wants my attention, the SLW are the holdouts.

One big ole BO gets my attention by pecking me; Daisy is so big she doesn't jump up on my lap or on the arm of the chair. Barbara Ann (BR) loves to have a daily chat and she expects me to put my arm around her so she can snuggle up close. Opal (EE), my smallest, loves to be petted while she whispers her woes to me. Violet (BO) sits on my lap...one day this week I had Barbara Ann on the arm of my chair, Opal sitting on my foot and Violet on my knee and all wanting my attention.

I guess my girls don't see me as a big ole predator.

 

[speedy2020]

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Do you want to have friendly chicken for kids or the one that run up to you? Well, the one that jumpy seem to be very skittish and hard to catch. It also make a lot of noise when you get close to the coup. There are pro and con, but I would refer friendly trait/gene.