Chickens usually lay their first eggs when they’re between five and seven months old. They start out strong, laying nearly every day, then gradually lay fewer and fewer eggs as they age. How long a chicken lays depends on her breed, her diet, and how many hours of light she’s exposed to each day.
Egg production by breed
Some breeds, such as Golden Comets and ISA browns, can lay 300 eggs or more in their first year. Many others, like Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, and Rhode Island Reds average between 250 and 280. Seramas, Hamburgs and Wyandottes don’t usually lay more than 200 eggs that first year. Cochins lay a little less than that, and silkies only lay about 100. By the time a hen is four or five years old, she’ll only produce half that number of eggs.
Nutritional needs of laying hens
Chickens need a lot of protein in their diets in order to lay healthy eggs. They also need calcium and vitamin D to create strong egg shells. Most brands of chicken feed marketed for laying hens contain 16% protein and 4% calcium. That’s enough to facilitate egg production in healthy birds. Chickens who are fed only table scraps or chicken scratch may not be able to fill their nutritional requirements and produce eggs. This is especially true in the winter, when it’s harder for them to find bugs or plants in the yard to snack on.
The effect of light on egg production
In the fall, as the days get shorter, chickens start laying fewer eggs. They use this season to molt instead. Their feathers fall out, (sometimes leaving bald patches on their skin, but not always), and their bodies invest the bulk of the protein from their diets in creating new ones. It’s a fascinating, and unsettling process to observe. Chickens in their first year of laying will often still produce eggs throughout the winter, but most older hens will take a break. All of ours stopped laying for more than two months last year, and we ended up having to buy eggs. For shame!
In order to keep up egg production as the days get shorter, it’s common to add supplemental lighting to the chicken coop. A light that comes on an hour or two before sunset can trick the chickens’ bodies in to believing the days are still long. This can decrease the extent to which the chicken molts, and encourage her to keep putting her protein into egg production. It’s a very controversial topic among backyard chicken keepers. Some argue that disrupting a chicken’s natural rhythms denies the bird a well-deserved rest and shortens its laying life. Others say the reason chickens molt and stop laying in the winter is because nutrients are becoming scarce, and the weather is getting colder. The latter group reasons that their chickens are still fed a balanced diet through the colder months, and have a comfortable shelter from the winter weather. It stands to reason, they say, that a hen in the wild shouldn’t hatch chicks in snowy weather, but a hen in captivity can still provide eggs for her caretakers to eat.
“Spent” hens
The commercial egg industry, and many small farmers, process their hens when they’re about three years old. While the chickens may still have a lot of eggs left in them, the rate at which they lay is no longer high enough to offset the costs associated with their feeding and housing. The meat from a three-year-old chicken is usually tough, so it’s made into pet food rather than sold for human consumption.
We don’t harbor any illusions about making money from our chickens here, though. Our oldest hen is Caramel, a buff Orpington. She’ll be nine this spring, and she still lays the occasional egg in the summertime when the days are long. We have a six-year-old black sex link hen, Brownie, who doesn’t lay at all anymore and spends her days telling the other chickens how to live. Our next-oldest is Pumpkin, a hen of unknown breed who’s almost four years old. Pumpkin had a long molt from October to January, but she’s started laying again recently. She provides us with an egg every other day.
We don’t have supplemental lighting in our coop, but we still like to eat eggs in the winter, so I’m experimenting now with a method of egg preservation I’m pretty nervous about. I’ll post about how it goes, and if it’s awful, I’ll try something else.