Hens still laying

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I have 8 layers all pure breeds ( 2 buff orpingtons, 3 buff sussex and 3 black australorpe bantams) and they are still laying. :D They have no light or heat in their sheds and I am amazed to still be getting 4 eggs a day. I have never had any that laid so close to Christmas. Still it is nice that after changing their water I have a nice warm egg to wrap my frozen fingers around. :o
 
Wow... you lucky thing!

I'm guessing but are they are in their first year and came into lay late in the Summer / Autumn?
 
I'm still geting 2 eggs daily,but mine are programmed to lay.It is a lovely way to warm up chilly fingers though.
 
our cream legbars just came back into lay last week, love te blue eggs lol we are getting an odd duck egg sometimes and the hybrids are still laying sometimes
 
My Pekin is still laying roughly 5 days out of 7.

She only started laying about a month ago though

Osric
 
Osric do you never sleep??? You always post in the middle of the night! Ros
 
We're up to about 7 eggs a week now from our 2 x speckeldy and 2 x blackrocks excellent considering we 've only had them since November
 
I've also been amazed I'm still getting a few eggs, I get 1 most days. They are in their first year of laying & because they didn't lay before the onset of Winter I didn't expect any eggs till Spring. I knew at least one was 'having a go' because I was still getting shell less eggs & 'trial efforts' & the Maran who was doing those is now laying!

I got 2 eggs yesterday & put those + 2 more into a box to give to a friend. She only ended up with 2 because our mad dog decided she'd like eggs for tea, took them off the table, scattered them around the house, ate one & broke another :lol:
 
podstable said:
Osric do you never sleep??? You always post in the middle of the night! Ros
Click to expand...

Er, no :)

Actually I do most of my posting when I'm asleep via Jedi mind trick. ;)

My Jedi name is Eggy-Wan Henobi
 
Osric said:
Er, no :)
Actually I do most of my posting when I'm asleep via Jedi mind trick. ;)
My Jedi name is Eggy-Wan Henobi
Click to expand...


LOL,that explains a lot ;) .
 
My girls were hatched at Easter.

We are plodding around in a couple of feet of snow now and have been since Friday morning. Only the children seem to be enjoying it. My girls are not impressed. :o
 
I was very surprised when after a couple of weeks off lay whilst they were moulting, my 'rescue' hens (4) are producing 2/3 eggs a day. Since the farm got rid of the hens because they were no longer commercially viable, what were they expected to lay in their first 2 years of life?

Gill
 
GillCheesman said:
I was very surprised when after a couple of weeks off lay whilst they were moulting, my 'rescue' hens (4) are producing 2/3 eggs a day. Since the farm got rid of the hens because they were no longer commercially viable, what were they expected to lay in their first 2 years of life?
Click to expand...

With commercial Battery set-ups Gill, they will usually cage / house the hens at 17 weeks of age and they will come into lay around 20 weeks. During this time, they can (not always) feed higher protein food so that the birds grow quicker and start laying larger eggs sooner. They put 18hrs per day of light on them and keep them laying for a year, replacing them around 72 weeks of age. After this, the hens are exhausted and when brought back onto normal daylight, they will usually go into moult and stop laying for a rest. By feeding the higher protein food, they lay poorer quality eggs later on in their lives. The breeds have also been selected genetically to produce most of their eggs in their early years and these high producing strains often deteriorate as they get older. Free Range systems take things a little slower and I think keep their hens for up to 100 weeks / two years.

In other words, to answer your question, they are usually pushed to give the most eggs in the shortest time but after the first year, it is uneconomical to keep them going through a moult and into another year since they will be laying about 10% less in their second year. They are usually expected to lay over 320 eggs in their first year under intensive conditions.
 
One of my welsummers started laying a few days ago. The two who were laying are going through their moult now but the other three have a fine covering of feathers and I've got some nice brown eggs turning up inthe bantams house. I wish they'd lay in their own house though.

At least I don't have to crawl under my trailer to collect eggs now

Osric
 
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