Know Your Egg Shed, Part II Egg Production

Reader Contribution by Pat Foreman
Published on April 2, 2013
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I’m often amazed at the false expectations people have about a hen’s ability to lay eggs in family flocks. The two main false beliefs are:

1. Hens are regular egg machines providing consistent production year round — no matter what.

2. A hen that stops laying is done laying forever. For this, she is often prematurely sentenced to capital punishment; destined for the stewpot, or a one-way trip to freezer camp.

Chicken keepers need to know that there are many factors that affect a hen’s egg laying ability. Without this knowledge, many fine laying hens are put down too early in life.

The gold standard for egg laying are the high-production factory farm hens. These are bred to lay about an egg a day in their prime. But, unlike family flocks, commercial layers are kept in strictly controlled, indoor environments. They have constant access to feed and water and are forced into molting to control the timing of the replacement feathers. This gets all hens in sync for the second (and last) round of egg production. Commercial layers have a life expectancy of about 2 years before slaughter.

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