Will it hurt a hen to lay more than one egg a day?

[angelah]

We were given six leghorns about two months ago. They were raised to go to a commercial farm. They took a few days to become "normal" as they had been stacked eight to a cage before they came to us. They all managed to squeeze into one nesting box to sleep the first night they came, and they didn't know how to get their food, but now they roost and eat well.

We were told they were a few weeks from laying, and we started getting an egg or two a day after a few weeks, which increased up to five or six per day for a few weeks. In the past week, we have gotten:

6, 7, 8, 7, 6, 12(!!!), 7

We bring the eggs in at the same time each day. We called the man who gave them to us, and he asked if maybe other chickens were getting into the nesting boxes, as this is not possible. There are no other chickens near us, and we have them in a run with a lock and at night in a henhouse which is padlocked (we have a neighbor boy who we are worried might bother them.) No other chickens could get in. We thought of friends playing a trick on us (we have been know to fork or toilet paper houses, so it would be due,) but the keys to the hens are in our locked house at all times. We have all gone to get the eggs together every day (yes, we are very new to this, LOL,) so it's not a trick from within the household. I've thought of every possible alternate explanation.

I am just worried about the hens. Is this healthy for them? We feed them Extra Egg (got that right!) and oyster shell freely, as well as all the crickets the kids can catch and toss in the run and a few veggies from the garden. Is this at all normal, or should we sell them to the circus?

Thanks for any help. We have learned so much from this site: ideas for the hen house, list of what vegetables we can feed them, etc.

ETA: I know this sounds crazy. The people I know with chicken IRL looked at me like a liar when I called around the first day we got seven. I'm scared to ask any of them about the rest of our week...

 

[SeramaLife]

 

[gottalovemychickens]

 

[Lensters]

You definitely have production layers. I would have expected at least as low as 6s on either side of the 12 but otherwise not overly surprising. However, the downside of having these is that you should expect them to be burned out after a year as well as ratty and sickly looking. But in the meantime make sure that they have the calcium available and keep up their protein levels. In the commercial setting there would be randomly chosen birds weighed weekly to make adjustment to the flocks feed. You might want to weigh yours and add higher protein feed if they start getting lighter.

 

[saddina]

Added protien, add oyster shell free choice, and keep an eye on them. They can't volentarily stop from releasing an egg, any more than you can make your body decide not to. With the extra reved up production, make sure they have enough left in them to keep thier bodies going, and make pound cakes, frittita or something. I've gotten an extra egg before (we egg check 3 times a day, it's hot here), but that's an ongoing over laying there.

Oh yes, and if you can get them into the fair's production contest, you may have some prize $$...

 

[angelah]

Thank you, Lensters and saddina!

I will keep an eye on their weight and add the higher protein if necessary. We were wondering about whether they needed the oyster shell extra, but we will definitely leave it out there.

 

[cmom]

I have had it happen once where one of my birds layed two eggs in one day but that's not normal. Their bodies take around 24 hours give or take 2/3 hours to develop a new egg. I get an egg a day from each of my birds.