Eglu Go With 2m Run For Sale

[BadGardener]

While waiting for my 4 new girls to start I have been pondering the question of how many hens, in general, lay well, ie more or less as you would expect for their breed.

 

Of my 3 original birds I had 2 good ones and a duff one - the Light Sussex was regular except for the expected periods of going broody or stopping in the very cold weather, one Gingernut Ranger was a trooper and hardly missed a day, the other GR laid for a couple of months then gave up.

 

Is this a normal sort of proportion or was I lucky/unlucky?

[good_egg]

I haven't got a lot of experience. But of my first three I had one goo layer (black rock) and one internal layer, plus the occasional softie who was PTS due to peritonitis (growth on ovary it turned out). Other didn't come into lay but I believe has done now. Not good odds. Hoping the four babies will be better so will follow post with interest.

[jackian]

In all over 18 months I have had 5 lovely girls..

2 Pepperpot .. My original Clover is really laid back and has hardly missed a day although the last few weeks has been every other day Eva we only had a few months she was poorly from the start laying very few and they were usually softies and never perfect and sadly was PTS after 3 months with a broken leg that would not mend..the poor chick struggled with life .

3 Ginger rangers ...Of my original 2 Poppy is a trooper and has only missed a few days in 16 months(poor thing will wear herself out ) Florry had peritinitous after 6 months and PTS and laid well to that point .My latest little Rosie is the cutest little girl and has only missed one day in 7 months.

These are all Hybreds and I really think they all lay too many to quickly .I am hoping to get 2 new girls beginning of next year and they will be pure breed as I want them to lay less eggs and live longer .

[BadGardener]

Wow, the odds aren't looking good so far then!

I'm hoping people will start coming along and saying 'Oh, all ours were good layers!' to even things up a bit!

[Olly]

Ok, over the last five years I've had 12 hens. All except one have laid regularly during their first 12-18 months, and less often after that - most have not survived beyond 2 or so, but I have a Speckledy aged 4 and upwards who still lays occasionally. Out of those twelve, I had one hen who did not lay regularly, she was not right from the start and she died suddenly and unexpectedly after only a few months. All the others have laid more or less reliably. I currently have six, and I'm getting three or four eggs a day - they are all laying but not all on the same day!

 

You can be unlucky and pure breed hens tend to lay slightly less often, but most hybrids will pop out 5-6 eggs a week in their first year of life.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I've hardly ever had all my hens laying at once. At the moment I have a fairly young Aracauna who lays about 3 eggs a month if we're lucky . Another (I now know because another hen died recently) doesn't lay at all but sits on the nestbox daily . My best layer (one a day without fail) now hasn't laid for 2 days .

 

Sorry .

[HennyPenny59]

All my hybrid girls have been laying an egg a day for about 6 weeks ... The only hiccup we experienced was that Gretel our Speckeldy, although regular, did lay an occasional softie for the first couple of weeks, but that seems to have stopped now.

[Minnie&Moose]

We've had a mixture of hybrids & pure breeds (total 16) for 4.5 years. All the hybrids bar one laid 5-6/week in their first year, but most tailed off/died by 2.5 yrs - though we have a Columbine who's 3.5 yrs who still lays 5-6 eggs a week, but has always taken a winter break at the same time and for the same length of time, as the pure breeds. Of the pure breeds, only 1 of them hasn't been a good layer (she lays a lot of softies), and the Cochin is broody most of the summer so only lays for a couple of weeks at a time but she's so beautiful and such a sweet bird we don't care. As for the new Pekins - they haven't started laying yet, but we got them for comedy value, not eggs

[BadGardener]

ok, I make that a running total so far of 34 good, 8 bad. That's not so bad then.

[daxigirl]

Lisa-Marie is tops at virtually every day (not her favourite thing to do though and makes her grumpy)

Paxo has slowed down to maybe 2 a week

Moomin was about 100 last year to 10 this year

The Awfuls are 4 each in a week

Fraggle and Sprocket have spent this year moulting so only a handful between them but showing signs of starting again

 

The Banties roughly 2/3 a week each

 

Brillo pretty good when not feeling broody (twice now)

Evil Edna

Thora Birchen

Twitter

 

Easter babies are just starting to lay, May babies no signs of anything happening.

[coppers]

I bought 6 point of lay hybrids in July 2009. They all started laying quite quickly after I got them (within a few weeks). They all laid regularly and produced 5 or 6 eggs a week each. In March 2010,Honeysuckle (my amber) changed pretty much into a male so stopped laying. Long story... The other 5 were fine. I lost Prue my bovans nera aged two and a half, no idea why but she had laid brilliantly until her demise.

My little red hen Florence laid until she was about three and a quarter, as did my bluebelle Beatrix and my reverse sussex Hettie. I sadly lost those three within a few months but they had all laid really well, albeit less after their first laying season. Beatrix had a little time off of laying as she had some crop problems but nothing too bad. Her eggs were a beautiful colour. I still have Lupin my speckledy and she is still laying most days. I think this is because she has been broody many times . Each time she has 3 days in the sin bin which sorts her out and she usually starts laying again about a week after she stops being broody. I still have Honeysuckle who has freeloaded for ages .

Overall I have been really pleased with the number of eggs I got and I presume the two birds I still have are still with us as they haven't burnt themselves out with producing lots of eggs? Just my theory but it would make sense. I would say Hettie the reverse sussex was the best layer and never caused one moment of concern, she was a lovely little hen. x