Sunday 3 January 2016

Eggs per Day

Until a week ago my eight strong flock of chickens was providing a regular seven eggs per day. I am fairly certain that one of the birds was not laying despite being some thirty weeks old. The probable guilty party was the smallest of the chickens. Her comb was very underdeveloped in comparison to her coop mates.

Over the last week three mornings have seen me collecting eight eggs including a distinctly smaller specimen. It would seem that the runt of the coop has managed to develop the knack of egg laying, - at last! There has been a definite growth spurt of her comb. I expect she will always be the smallest of the chickens but at least there is now some return on her feed bill.

As well as these eight egg days there have been two days when the number of eggs per chicken has exceeded one. In one instance I collected nine eggs and on the other eleven. I didn't think that this was physically possible but apparently it can happen. If it does occur then it is common for the shell of the second egg to be very thin. I haven't noticed any difference in shell thickness. This is apparently suggestive of a high protein diet. Apart from their standard layers pellets I am not feeding them anything save for a few cabbage leaves. That said they are grubbing around the orchard most days so they must be finding a plentiful supply of slugs, snails, worms and beetles.

 

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