The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: polaris on March 11, 2014, 07:30:06 pm
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Which chickens produce the best eggs?
I've read goldlines, (never heard of them before) are very good?
Egg colour is not important to us :) just nice fat eggs for the kitchen :)
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What do you mean by 'best'? The biggest, the most per week, etc?
In general, commercial hybrid hens lay the most eggs, but won't lay for as many years as a pure bred hen. As they get older, hens tend to lay less frequent, bigger eggs.
I'd say get whatever you like the look of, as long as it's suited to your situation (e.g. don't buy silkies if you plan to free range them somewhere exposed, and don't want them going broody all the time). There's quite a good summary of the different breeds on the Omlet website.
HTH!
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like womble ? re what you mean by best eggs. if you;re after regular layers then generally anything with a good dose of rhode island red like most of the commercial layers is the way to go/ our personal faves are Black Rock, tho we also have warrens aka goldline ( I believe) which are the usual breed in battery systems. our ex bats are all warrens. on the pure bred front light sussex are sposed to be amongst the best tho our token LS is forever broody. Our Marans aren't bad either. I guess anyone who comments will like us have personal favourites
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sorry- forgot to say im pretty sure a warren/goldline is a RIR X LS sure i'll be corrected of wrong
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ISA Brown, Lohmann, they're all much of a muchness. We've had a couple of poultry farmers stay in our farm holiday cottage (farmers like to go on "holiday" to farms!) and one said he produced free range eggs and poultry for Sainsbury's (but couldn't produce anything like as good an egg as he'd just eaten from our rare breeds!) and kept Warrens for laying but just thought of a new name for them on his way to the Sainsbury's buyer so he could offer a unique product. The other was a Scottish egg producer who said her ISA Browns laid their socks off until their first moult but the eggs became incfreasingly large and thin shelled after that so they always went for cull as soon as they entered the moult and at any one time she had two batches in the pipeline ready to take their place.
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If you just want nice fat eggs for the kitchen, I'd suggest ducks! Lovely big eggs that are generally 20% bigger than chicken eggs. Personally I have a light sussex that I got on the basis I'd read they lay really big, white eggs and mine lays smaller, pinker eggs than my Orpingtons (a breed that originally was a great egg layer and has lost a lot of that after breeding for show qualities and is eternally broody to boot). So far this year my young Marans (dark brown eggs) and Araucana (blue eggs) have carried me through the winter and are still laying pretty much daily at the moment but I have no long term experience with them. Agree with the others that you should choose a breed that you like too - each has pros and cons. Quality of eggs comes down more to the conditions you keep them in imho.
H
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I find that orpingtons go broody too much. Lovely eggs but not enough time laying.
I have switched to light sussex for large eggs and welsummers for a brown eggs. They both lay pretty consistently and neither went broody through last year.
Just hatched some Light sussex and got welsummers in the incy.
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Black Rocks are reliable and hardy, producing lots of big eggs for years. I have some ISA Browns at the moment who have laid well for 3 years now but aren't as tough as Black Rocks. These and other hybrid hens like Goldlines are the best layers as that's what they've been bred to do.
Far too many pure bred birds have had their historical laying abilities spoilt by breeders breeding for showing, so looks being more important than eggs, as I found to my cost when I bought Plymouth Rocks at a stupid price.
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We aim for quality not quantity Polaris. Everyone who has tasted our eggs has said the same thing 'the best ever'. We have no hybrids anymore, they are all Pedigrees. They lay perhaps 200 maximum in their best year and don't lay over the Winter quarter. I believe not only is diet important for the taste but the frequency of laying and the breeds as well. We have Buff Orpingtons (for decoration), Wyandottes, Leghorn bantams and best of all are the Transylvanian Naked Necks. Our egg market was seasonal, so we didn't want eggs in Winter as we couldn't sell them. They don't eat much when they are not laying either, but the moult used to mess things up in the sales season.
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Like others have said the condition s in which they live is probably just as important as the breed to some extent. Our regular customers also describe our eggs as the best and are always disappointed thru winter months when we don't have enough to go round. I believe thateevidence shows there is no nutritional or taste difference between our lovely orange yolkers anx the pale supermarket offerings but I like to think that our happy chooks do produce a better egg
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I've given up on (garden) hybrids as well, IME they never lay that well after the first moult (certainly not as much as breeders claim) and I lost all of them in their second year to egg bind/peritonitis. They are not bred for longevity, they lay bigger and bigger eggs and put the same amount of shell down-leading to weaker eggs. I have one left who was egg bound at the weekend but seems ok just now.
your eggs will be superior just by being fresh! and out of happy hens. I only have purebreeds now and just freeze eggs for use when they've had enough in the autumn/winter-I also try and have pullets coming into lay before xmas which helps.
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I have bred most and was a black rock agent iv also made cross breeds.I havent found nothink better than the morrasons D104 they are avarge size they lay 300 eggs and iff looket after they shoud be great vacinated which is important .The breed to look at is indian game /dorking river cottage uses these in is food fare . But there is black rock 11 yares old and laying.
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You could consider something like leghorns. Exchequers are lovely birds and lay a lot of big white eggs once they get going.
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Funnily, I've never found any difference in the quality or colour of yolk between my hybrids and the variety of pure breds I have had. Perhaps that is because they are all completely free range with plenty of grass and other titbits. The hybrids are generallly better at laying all year round, but breeding pure breeds and creating your own crosses is more fun.
I'd love some dorkings and some leghorns as I like a variety of colours in my eggshells and I'mlacking white ATM. I used to have LF Anconas who were lovely, but they're very hard to find and not as eggy as leghorns are supposed to be.
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I believe thateevidence shows there is no nutritional or taste difference between our lovely orange yolkers anx the pale supermarket offerings
I can't remember where, but I've read resarch that suggests the opposite. 'Backyard' eggs were found to be higher in various nutrients and also omega 3 than standard supermarket eggs :thumbsup: .
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A utility strain of Leghorns are hard to beat for sheer number of eggs laid and over a longer period than most hybrids.
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I believe thateevidence shows there is no nutritional or taste difference between our lovely orange yolkers anx the pale supermarket offerings
I can't remember where, but I've read resarch that suggests the opposite. 'Backyard' eggs were found to be higher in various nutrients and also omega 3 than standard supermarket eggs :thumbsup: .
Nope there is absolutely no difference whatsoever.
I was involved in a large project with the Scottish Agricultural College where all sorts of eggs/diets/colouring etc were tested.
You can change colouring and create different tastes etc but as far as it goes nutrition wise an egg is an egg :thumbsup:
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So just to confirm what you are saying please Clansman, because this is important to me.
There is no NUTRITIONAL difference between small keeper and commercial eggs, setting aside the effects of egg age, as I know they start to deteriorate after 3 days, hence the reducing hatchability.
You can change both the COLOURING and the TASTE. I know diet affects the colouring but do you know how the taste can be varied? Diet, breed, age of the bird, environment?
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You could try adding fishmeal to the feed - I bet that'd come through in the egg!
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Admittedly American research but does say increased vit A&E (free range v caged feeding)
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7219036 (http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7219036)
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Yep that was pretty much the end result.
The yolks could be coloured by adding different colouring, they had pretty much every colour from almost white through to black, (green yolks didn't look very appetising!)
I do remember beetroot being fed as a colouring agent and most of the ingredients were just normal day to day stuff but given in large quantities, there were no secret potions or dodgy stuff fed to them.
Fishmeal was indeed used for one of the taste tests, as well as liquorice, garlic, mint, sugar and a whole load of other stuff I can't remember properly (it was 25 years ago) ;D
But the main purpose of the testing was to check the nutrition levels across the range and there was no difference between breeds, whether commercial or pure breed, I remember both Black and white leghorns, ISA Browns, Ross Broiler breeders and a few others being used.
Neither was there any difference between housing type/system or diets fed, other than colour and taste.
I suppose its a bit like the white vs brown egg thing, we were all told brown eggs were better for us so we believe it, were as in reality there is no difference in nutrition value between them at all.
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That's certainly true. In the UK, we tend to value 'earthy, wholesome' brown eggs, whereas in the USA and Norway, supermarket eggs are usually white (because they are seen as more 'pure' I think).
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It is a strange one and defies all logic and I don't want to believe it really but the eggs popped out by my happy hens are no better for you than any others. So the premium on the price is in reality paying simply for a happier hen. To me a price worth paying but I suspect few realise thank god
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KC ducks cant be beaten on quantity of eggs... size is great.... and taste fab too!
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Well, if you're talking reeeeaaallly yummy scrummy eggs, you can't beat goose. Utterly sublime! :love: (but a bit seasonal to say the least)
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I seem to recall the changeover to brown eggs from white and think it was something to do with the eggshell thickness keeping the eggs fresher? But my memory can't be relied on.
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Certainly in our flock, the more colour in the egg, the better the sell quality, but then you get less eggs. It's worth keeping in mind that a hen is hatched with a certain amount of eggs inside her, like a human. This doesn't vary much with breed. So a hybrid will fire them all out in the first couple years and then be useless. A dark egg layer like a Welsummer or Marans will lay less frequently but likely over a larger amount of years. So I think pure breeds are better as pets.
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Sorry that was silly of me, we are interested in high egg production. Years laying isn't really a problem as I'm one if those wierdos that prefers an older roast chicken to a younger one. :) average size eggs really as we are also breeding pigeons and quail. :)
They will be free range but the ground quality is good and hard :)
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The breeds that really appeal to me are Araucanas, well summers, and the light Sussex. :)
I must say, would people recommend the above? All seem to be well spoken of, I'm having difficulty finding birds in Scotland though.
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Gosh i had to check this out as I too had always believed free range would be vastly superior. I would always pick free range anyway because I like happy hens! Here is a link to a recent study showing only small differences in fat content and colour mainly... http://www.poultryscience.org/pr081511.asp?autotry=true&ULnotkn=true (http://www.poultryscience.org/pr081511.asp?autotry=true&ULnotkn=true)
Welllsummers lay a lovely dark egg which if you're selling is good but I found they didn't lay as well as the light Sussex who is also a meatier bird that you can put in the pot when you're done... Whatever you go for try to find a good utility line... Show birds tend to lay less and some are really hopeless! I'd go for the LS but I'm biased as they are a fav of mine!
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I have switched to light sussex because I hatch them and the cockerels are big and meaty and the hens lay large eggs and they dont go so broody.
I only have one welsummer but the eggs are beautifully brown and she is a proper character bird. We have had a few LS / welsummer crosses but all been cockerels so far.
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Out of those three, I'd go for Sussex if you want meat as well as eggs but if you have a market, get a few hybrids to keep you going in the coldest, darkest months.
There are some based on LS which look pretty meaty...