The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: langdon on May 04, 2010, 07:55:10 pm
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just read on someones elses post about laying, it was saying that layers lay best in their first year and then
it goes down by 25%.
is this right?
if so my frustration at my chucks may be explained as ours seem to be laying less.
we have nine girls and we got them in may last year.
they are a hybrid ' lohman brown ' hen.
we are only getting 5- 8 eggs now been a while since we had 8 though.
langdon :chook:
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I'll be interested to hear what others say too.
I got my hens in March last year and I thought I'd read somewhere that the second year is their most productive, or was it the 2nd year they were bigger eggs.
I have 18 girls and I'm getting around 15 eggs a day at the moment, which I'm more than happy with. I think there was only 1 or 2 days in the summer last year that I had 18 eggs.
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ours are in there first year and are laying 3 or 4 eggs per day, we have 4 hens marans.
most days we get 4 eggs so we are happy with that.
we also have 24 eggs in the incubator so even more for breakfast next year ;D if they hatch
kn
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My black rocks and sussex are in their 2nd year and the sussex is now laying paper shells and the black rocks have had a very long break over winter and are now laying almost daily.
My newer girls are laying daily as my old ones did last year so in a nutshell, the first year was the best year for mine.
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Pullets, the first years layers do lay very well in that first year. But I do not agree that things go downhill from then on!! My battery hens for example, some are 3-4 years old, and all are still laying at full capacity - they are free range. I have found that the pure bred do not lay as good as the hybrid hens at all. I had some marans, and the eggs were lovely being dark brown, but they definitely did not lay anywhere near as many eggs per year.
As I said my hens are laying very well, as are another lady who got some ex batteries from us. Yet two other people nearby have moaned and groaned their ex batts have not been good, and are only just starting to lay again after the winter. I suppose its like anything, there are good and bad.