Who determines egg size?

[Love My Chickies]

Is this true? I'm new to chickens and have been researching and learning all I can, but can't find any other info on this. I always thought the hen determined the egg size. I have 2, possibly 3 roosters, and one very small hen it seems. (They are going to be separated). I was worried about a larger rooster physically harming a small hen, but a too-large egg had never occurred to me!

 

[HappyClucker7]

Bantams lay eggs appropriate to their size. She won't lay an egg that will be big enough to kill her.

 

[Ridgerunner]

but a too-large egg had never occurred to me!

And it should not. A rooster has nothing to do with the size of the egg that a hen lays. That's determined by her mother and father.

The rooster does have an effect on what size of an egg his daughters lay. So does the other. Both mother and father also contribute to the hen size and practically everything else about her. If the rooster hatched from an egg laid by a hen that often goes broody he can pass that trait on to his daughters. I mean they pullets get everything genetically from both the mother and father.

When you breed a bantam to a full sized fowl, no matter which one is the father, you typically get something in between since they both contribute genetically. Don't worry for a minute about a hen laying an egg so big it will kill her.

Do you have a link to that, I'd like to try to read it in context. Thanks.

 

[Love My Chickies]

And it should not. A rooster has nothing to do with the size of the egg that a hen lays. That's determined by her mother and father.

The rooster does have an effect on what size of an egg his daughters lay. So does the other. Both mother and father also contribute to the hen size and practically everything else about her. If the rooster hatched from an egg laid by a hen that often goes broody he can pass that trait on to his daughters. I mean they pullets get everything genetically from both the mother and father.

When you breed a bantam to a full sized fowl, no matter which one is the father, you typically get something in between since they both contribute genetically. Don't worry for a minute about a hen laying an egg so big it will kill her.

Do you have a link to that, I'd like to try to read it in context. Thanks.

Absolutely!
https://silkie.org/breeding-bantam-and-large-fowl-chickens-together.html

 

[Fallenone05]

And it should not. A rooster has nothing to do with the size of the egg that a hen lays. That's determined by her mother and father.

The rooster does have an effect on what size of an egg his daughters lay. So does the other. Both mother and father also contribute to the hen size and practically everything else about her. If the rooster hatched from an egg laid by a hen that often goes broody he can pass that trait on to his daughters. I mean they pullets get everything genetically from both the mother and father.

When you breed a bantam to a full sized fowl, no matter which one is the father, you typically get something in between since they both contribute genetically. Don't worry for a minute about a hen laying an egg so big it will kill her.

Do you have a link to that, I'd like to try to read it in context. Thanks.

I've never thought about it before, but I know that usually breeding a larger male to a smaller female isn't great. Like breeding a larger bull to a smaller cow can cause size issues in the birth canal and get the calf stuck.

Would breeding an LF rooster to a bantam make the chick too big for its egg? My brain says that might be a thing but the other side of me says no, because people mix their birds all the time.

 

[Ridgerunner]

He never mentioned actually seeing a problem with a small hen and large egg.

 

[Love My Chickies]

He never mentioned actually seeing a problem with a small hen and large egg.

The part where a large egg could kill her startled me.

 

[bruceha2000]

I've got 2 Austra Whites (Black Australorp x White Leghorn) from Meyer. They have the basic size and shape of the leghorn but lay HUGE eggs. I wouldn't think it possible but they seem to have no problems.

And if you are asking about a large rooster BREEDING a small hen I don't think that has any effect on the size of the eggs she lays.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I've never thought about it before, but I know that usually breeding a larger male to a smaller female isn't great. Like breeding a larger bull to a smaller cow can cause size issues in the birth canal and get the calf stuck.

Would breeding an LF rooster to a bantam make the chick too big for its egg? My brain says that might be a thing but the other side of me says no, because people mix their birds all the time.

Forget what you think you know. Chickens are "weird". Some of the best layers in the chicken world are commercial hybrid varieties of red sex links - popping out lg, xl, and the occasional jumbo egg from a bird that weighs maybe 4# on a near daily basis. Meanwhile, the 8# cochin pullet is laying a medium egg every other day on a good week...

Hen size and egg size are not closely correlated in chickens.

and if you take a set of calipers and compare a md egg to a jumbo, the change in diameter isn't nearly what you might expect. Now butcher one of the birds and take a look at the @$$ end. Compared to humans, elephants, dogs, and other mammals, the pelvic bones in chickens look completely alien. There's no ring.

Mammal, typical -

Chicken, duck, other fowl - (example is from a chicken but ducks are damned similar)

 

[Fallenone05]

Forget what you think you know. Chickens are "weird". Some of the best layers in the chicken world are commercial hybrid varieties of red sex links - popping out lg, xl, and the occasional jumbo egg from a bird that weighs maybe 4# on a near daily basis. Meanwhile, the 8# cochin pullet is laying a medium egg every other day on a good week...

Hen size and egg size are not closely correlated in chickens.

and if you take a set of calipers and compare a md egg to a jumbo, the change in diameter isn't nearly what you might expect. Now butcher one of the birds and take a look at the @$$ end. Compared to humans, elephants, dogs, and other mammals, the pelvic bones in chickens look completely alien. There's no ring.

View attachment 2752262View attachment 2752264

I've got a smaller bird (compared to my others) who lays a larger egg than they do. My brain just wants to correlate chick size to egg size, though. As an example, one of the 'rules' to hatching eggs is to wait after the first couple eggs from a new layer because the egg size can stunt growth, even if that's just a little poultry myth.

When I think of a big bird breeding a smaller bird and passing down the genetics for a slightly larger adult bird, I just think of a Hulk-like chick breaking out of its egg because there's not enough room. LMAO Like I know that's wrong but with everything else, breeding larger to smaller and messing with baby size has stuck with me.