I am a bit late this year with my end of year egg count. It has thrown up some interesting figures.
Firstly I will start with the three girls who are no longer with me as they didn’t complete the full year.
Peaches and Barley were re homed with my friend Moira in May. Barley laid for longer as she started a month earlier than Peaches but Peaches laid more eggs.
Peaches laid 28 eggs in 3 months and Barley laid 25 eggs in 4 months. This gave Peaches an average of 9 eggs a month and Barley an average of 6 eggs a month.
Sadly we lost Rusty in September. Rusty laid 39 eggs in 6 months so she averaged 6 eggs a month.
Now for the current flock.
One thing that really surprised me was how poor a layer Speckles is. Speckles laid 27 eggs in 5 months giving her an average of 5 eggs a month. Emerald on the other hand, with her short season, laid 49 eggs in 4 months giving her an average of 12 eggs a month.
Now for the little girls. Freckles is by far the best layer and Apricot is right at the bottom.
Freckles laid 111 eggs in 10 months giving her an average of 11 eggs a month.
Dandelion laid 59 eggs in 9 months giving her an average of 6 eggs a month.
Cinnamon laid 71 eggs in 8 months giving her an average of 8 eggs a month.
Apricot laid 30 eggs in 7 months giving her an average of 4 eggs a month.
It’s difficult to get a true picture of the little girl’s egg laying ability because of the microplasma which caused them to stop laying when they may have otherwise continued to lay for longer. Also Freckles is six months older than the three amigos and so was laying sooner than they were. Next year will give them a full year of egg laying providing there are no problems.
Freckles started laying in March, Dandelion in April, Cinnamon in May and Apricot in June. This is because Freckles was more mature than the other girls and silky feathered girls mature the slowest meaning Apricot was the last to start laying.
Freckles was also the most broody so she could have laid even more eggs without time off to be broody. Cinnamon was the only girl that laid right through to December with just 4 eggs in December before she started moulting.
I conclude that whilst my research showed that seramas lay in winter it is influenced slightly by moulting as well as this winter by being unwell. On the other hand even though they laid less in winter they still laid some eggs whilst the bigger two girls lay only for a short summer season.
Speckles laid for 5 months and Emerald for 4 months but the seramas have the potential to lay all year round depending on how early in the year they start laying. Freckles didn’t mature and start egg laying until March and Rusty matured and started egg laying in April.
This means that I won’t know until later this year when they will start laying. As they are still moulting and occasionally sneezing that could be a factor in them starting later.
It is quite clear though that Freckles is way out in front as the best layer and Apricot is by far the layer of least eggs.
We had a total of 439 eggs this year. 92 eggs were from flock members no longer with us and 347 eggs from the current six girls.
It will be interesting to see what this year brings.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Very good, all those lovely eggs.
I must say that I am missing them at the moment. I am really looking forward to the girls starting to lay again.
Well done to Freckles, in particular. Anconas usually have a reputation of being good layers, but Speckles is no ‘spring chicken’! At least, when she is laying, she lays eggs of an admirable size. We have moved from a ‘trickle’ to averagig 3 eggs per day, with 5 laying – but again, several are at least into their 3rd year; don;t expect the even older girls to start before late March.
Speckles is only about three years old whereas Emerald is about five years old or maybe a bit more as it was uncertain how old she was when we got her. On that basis I think Emerald is a very good egg layer and as you say Anconas usually are but not Speckles so much, but you are right that her eggs are very large for bantam eggs.
I envy you still having some eggs and agree that it gets harder to tell when the older girls will start up again. It will be interesting to see how soon we get eggs again and I look forward to it.