A pullet starts laying when she is 20 to 24 weeks old. Her first eggs are quite small, and she will lay only one egg every 3 or 4 days. By the time she is 30 weeks old, her eggs will be normal in size and she will lay about two eggs every 3 days.
When a pullet is born, she carries in her body as many as 4,000 ova, or undeveloped yolks. When the pullet reaches laying age, one by one the ova grow into full-size yolks and drop into a 2-foot-long tube called the oviduct.
As a yolk travels through the oviduct, it becomes surrounded by egg white and encased in a shell. About 24 hours after it started its journey, it is a complete egg ready to be laid.
A hen cannot lay more eggs than the total number of ova inside her body. From the day she enters this world, each female chick carries with her the beginnings of all the eggs she can possibly lay during her lifetime. Few hens, however, live long enough to lay more than 1,000 of the possible 4,000 they start with.
The Life of a Layer
A good laying hen produces about 20 dozen eggs in her first year. At 18 months of age, she stops laying and goes into a molt, during which her old feathers gradually fall out and are replaced with new ones. Chickens molt once a year, usually in the fall, and the process generally takes 2 to 3 months. Because a hen needs all her energy to grow replacement feathers during the molt, she lays few eggs or none at all. Once her new feathers are in, she looks sleek and shiny, and she begins laying again.
After her first molt, a hen lays larger but fewer eggs. During her second year, she will lay 16 to 18 dozen eggs. Some hens may lay more, others fewer. Exactly how many eggs a hen lays depends on many factors, including breed and strain, how well the flock is managed, and the weather. Hens lay best when the temperature is between 45 and 80°. When the weather is much colder or much warmer, hens lay fewer eggs than usual. In warm weather, hens lay smaller eggs with thinner shells.
All hens stop laying in winter, not because the weather is cold but because winter days have fewer hours than summer days. When the number of daylight hours falls below 14, hens stop laying. If your henhouse is wired for electricity, you can keep your hens laying year-round by installing a 60-watt light bulb. Use the light in combination with daylight hours to provide at least 14 hours of light each day.
You can leave the light on all the time, or save electricity by plugging the light into a timer switch from an electrical supply or hardware store. If you use a timer, remember to adjust it occasionally as daylight hours change, as well as anytime the power goes out and throws off your lighting schedule.
Layers versus Lazy Hens
You can improve your flock’s overall laying average by culling and slaughtering the lazy layers. The hens you cull can be used for stewing or making chicken soup. When your flock reaches peak production at about 30 weeks of age, you can easily tell by looking at your hens and by handling them which ones are candidates for culling:
• Look at their combs and wattles. Lazy layers have smaller combs and wattles than good layers.
• Pick up each hen and look at her vent. A good layer has a large, moist vent. A lazy layer has a tight, dry vent.
• Place your hand on the hen’s abdomen. It should feel round, soft, and pliable, not small and hard.
• With your fingers, find the hen’s two pubic bones, which are located between her keel (breastbone) and her vent. In a good layer, you can easily press two or three fingers between the pubic bones and three fingers between the keel and the pubic bones. If the pubic bones are close and tight, the hen is not a good layer.
The four-point examination of a good Paying hen. 1. Large,
bright comb and wattles; 2. Large, moist vent; 3. Large, soft abdomen;
4. Spaced-out pubic bones.
The Bleaching Sequence
If you raise a yellow-skinned breed, you can sort out the less productive hens by the color of their skin after they have been laying awhile. The same pigment that makes egg yolks yellow colors the skin of yellow-skinned breeds. When a hen starts laying, the skin of her various body parts bleaches out in a certain order. When she stops laying, the color returns in reverse order. You can therefore tell how long a yellow- skinned hen has been laying, or how long ago she stopped laying, by the color of the exposed skin on her beak and legs.
Bleaching Sequence:
Body Part |
Number of Eggs Required to Bleach |
Approximate Weeks to Lay That Many Eggs |
Vent Eye ring Earlobe Beak Bottom of feet Front of shank |
0—10 8—12 8—10 35 50—60 90—100 |
1—2 2—2½ 2½—3 5—8 8 10 |
Replacement Pullets
A hen lays best during her first year. As she gets older, she lays fewer and fewer eggs. If you raise chickens primarily for eggs, you have the same concern as commercial producers — a time will come when the cost of feeding your hens is greater than the value of the eggs they lay. For this reason, commercial producers rarely keep hens more than 2 years.
To keep those eggs rolling in, buy or hatch a batch of chicks every year or two. As soon as the replacement pullets start laying, get rid of the hens. If you replace your hens every year, you might sell your old flock, which will still lay fairly well for at least another year. If you replace your hens every two years or more, you can sell or use them yourself as stewing hens.
Next: Collecting
and Storing Eggs
Prev.: Feeding Chickens