A question that is often asked by people wanting to start a layer house is “how many eggs does a chicken lay?” – The industry standard is not clear. The least amount of eggs you should get - even if you are a bad chicken farmer, is 5 eggs per week per chicken. The most you will get is just over an egg a day – or a 105% egg lay rate per chicken. There are many factors which affect the lay rate of chickens, the feed, or layer mash that you give your birds, the way you heat your chicken house, and the way you raise your chickens – it is said that free range chickens and organic chickens do not have as good a egg lay rate as caged chickens kept in a battery cage. This is untrue, many free range egg producers get excellent results and consistently get an egg per day per chicken.

The thinking is that because the hen is moving around it is not putting energy into making eggs – the opposite is true – the exercise actually helps with production – and do not forget about all the extra vitamins, minerals that are coming from the range – bugs, lizards, weeds, vegetables all contribute to healthy hens – and in turn towards better production. One just has to look at what are known as barn egg production – this is where the birds are kept on the floor – not free range – they are still confined to the house, but they are moving around constantly in the house. Where farmers may lose in such cases is the extra labour of collection – in free range, organic and floor eggs collection them is a much bigger job than in a layer cage scenario.

You egg lay rate will not be the same throughout the life of the layer – when you first place you point of lay birds at 18 weeks to 20 weeks they will lay almost no eggs per day. As they grow so the number of eggs per chicken will increase. In the prime of their laying life they will lay about 32 eggs per month – or just over i per day. When you come towards the end of their production cycle, (around 60 weeks) you will see the egg production going down – and thereafter it will drop dramatically. This is why farmers buy at 18 weeks and then sell the layers for slaughter at 60 weeks. There is just not enough profit per egg after this period. Chickens can though, and will lay eggs for as long as they live. The quality of the eggs is also a factor – older hens start to lay deformed eggs and soft shell eggs.

How many eggs does a chicken lay also depends on factors that are often out of your control – how they were raised before you got them, whether they were floor eggs and how old their parents were. The first part of a layers life is critical – feeding them the right stuff, keeping them warm, vitamins and vaccinations all play a big part in how well they will produce as adult hens. Once you have them in your house you will need to put them on a special diet – and this will change as they grow – so quality of feed and type of feed is very important. Many farmers also regularly give their birds vitamins every month, as well as the necessary shots, vaccines and medication. The season also plays a part – in winter they will lay less – and when the molt (lose their feathers) they will stop laying all together. The environment and you laying boxes or nesting boxes can influence the number or eggs the hens produce – if your birds are being upset by load noises or their laying boxes are not off the ground and dark as well as safe the fowls will be hesitant to lay – hens like a warm, dry, safe and quite place to produce well. They should have easy access to clean, fresh water and fresh poultry feed at all times. While some farmers like to use extended lighting in the structures it can detrimentally affect production if you over do it. Other more wacky ways are playing music to your birds – and even singing to them. While this has some merit and backing it is not standard – what is more important is consistency – if you are going to sing – then sing all the time – if you enter your house and are usually quiet and then suddenly start shouting or using a load voice it will most certainly upset your flock – and when the birds are upset – no laying or dramatically reduced production. Things like a loose steel sheet on the roof that flaps and bangs in the wind is a no no – would a mother be happy if she was constantly been give a fright – same with fowls – broilers or layers do not like frights. The last thing to remember on this subject is the case of sick birds – the first thing I look for when production is down is disease – a drop in lay rate will be a first indicator that the birds are not healthy. Keeping records there fore is vital – you need to write down everything – how much food you give the chickens, how many eggs they lay, when you give them medication and vitamins, when they are sick and of course, when they die (called the mortality rate of your flock n technical terms). Not only will this help you mange your current flock but it will give you insights for future farming. I can see by looking at my charts if something I have changed in the environment has had an effect on the flock – this is invaluable if you want to suck every bit of profit from your poultry farm.