What does a chicken need to lay an egg every day?

[venymae]

Hendurance!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

She needs to be a hybrid developed by the best genetics company, have optimal nutrition, the right lighting program and still won't lay an egg a day for very long.
An excellent producing breed will take about 26 hours to produce each egg during her first season. That isn't one a day.
Egg hybrids like Hy-Line can lay close to that but only for up to 18 months with the right light and nutrition.

Chickens aren't egg machines, they're animals that provide us breakfast.

Many breeds will lay nearly daily for the bulk of the year but still take months off in fall and winter.
Their bodies can't keep up that pace without a break.

The best laying pure breeds like leghorns lay about 300 a year. RIRs may lay almost that many. Other good laying breeds will produce 150-250 a year. That includes their annual break.

Keep in mind that these birds were developed from red jungle fowl that laid perhaps up to 2 clutches a year of 5-8 eggs.
We kept selecting for more production and no desire to raise a family. Then we fed them optimal nutrition to support that scale of production 30+ times what they were intended to produce.

 

[sourland]