I thought it would be interesting to compare this year’s egg count to last year’s. In general our girls lay less each year with some girls as much as halving their egg number each year but there are always anomalies.
There has also been a theory that I had that has been blown out of the water. I thought based on a sample of one, being Smoke, that perhaps a serama serial broody was more likely to lay through the winter.
Sugar turned out to be a serial broody too but hasn’t laid this winter. Shadow who has never been broody has laid this winter. I have now amended my theory.
The thing that Smoke and Shadow have in common is that they lay a lot more eggs than the rest of the girls. My new theory is that it is the seramas that are the best egg layers that lay in the winter. You will see this with the egg numbers.
So I am going to first list last year’s egg number for each girl followed by this year’s egg number starting with the oldest girls and working through to the newest and youngest girls.
I am including Ebony first because although we re homed Ebony in October she had already stopped laying so her number of eggs is still complete for this year.
Last year Ebony laid 115 eggs and this year she laid 59 eggs.
Last year Flame laid 138 eggs and this year she laid 77.
Last year Smoke laid 117 eggs and this year she laid 121 eggs. Smoke is the anomaly laying 4 eggs more this year than last.
Last year Spangle laid 59 eggs and this year she laid 31.
Last year Salmon laid 71 eggs and this year she laid 47.
Shadow started laying in February of this year and has laid 107 eggs.
Sugar started laying in March this year and has laid 57 eggs.
We got Spot in September this year and she hasn’t started laying yet as it was too late in the year. She should start laying in the spring.
The total eggs laid last year was 564 and the total eggs laid this year was 442
Smoke and Shadow have laid a much higher number than any of the other girls. It will be interesting to see how the pattern progresses next year.
It will also be interesting see if Spot turns out to be a good layer as hamburgs usually are. We no longer have Ebony but now have Spot so we will have another egg layer in the spring.
All that remains for me now is to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and to hope that 2022 will be a better year for everyone.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Happy New Year Carol!!
xx
Happy New Year to you too xx
Happy New Year, Carol. Eggs are a great bonus from our girls and it is good that you have two strong layers; if Smoke did not go broody, goodness knows how many more she’d produce. Mine are starting to creep up, but every one needs to be cleaned, as we’ve had so much bleaching rain the run is very muddy, despite a tarpaulin over most of the top.
Eggs are indeed a great bonus at this time of year. Smoke laid a Christmas Day egg and Shadow laid on Boxing Day. Smoke laid a New Year’s Eve egg and Shadow laid a New Year’s Day egg this morning. Despite the entire run being roofed our run is also very wet in parts due to the rain coming in the sides. Luckily the top part stays dry due to the solid sides but it would be lovely to have some dry weather. It has been dull and wet for so long.
Do they lay a few less every year ? Still lots to enjoy.
They do lay less each year then gradually it halves each year. This is why commercially, hens are only kept for a couple of years, because it’s only the first couple of years that they lay really well. It’s also why most chicken keepers like to add new girls every year or so. I have enough girls that the eggs will always be plenty for us. It’s a good idea though to have a range of ages to keep not only the eggs going but to keep the flock going too. You don’t want to end up with an elderly flock that dies out all at once. I have four different ages now in our flock. Phew, that turned out to be a long comment. I think it is an interesting fact about chickens though.