I’ve been waiting and waiting and today it happened. The first 50 g egg from Lady!
The Girls have been laying for 5 weeks. Lady was the first to lay (from whence she eventually got her name— First Lady). It was only a tiny 37 g but I was so proud of her.
Egg weights climbed slowly into the low to mid 40’s, then the high 40’s and have been hovering around the 47/48/49 mark for the last week. I knew Lady would be the first to hit 50. Good girl!
I did some more research on Barnevelders and it looks like I can expect 180 – 200 eggs per year from 1 hen. So 540 – 600 from the 3 of them. Say, around 10-11 per week, probably less in winter.
It looks like I’ll have more than enough for myself and be able to give half a dozen away to a friend regularly, but won’t be supporting the entire neighbourhood.
I don’t know if egg weights will continue to increase, but I’m quite happy with what they’re producing.
In the words of E F Schumacher: “Small is beautiful”.
Foodnstuff 
January 30, 2012 at 6:45 am |
….and good things come in small parcels ( or shells!!) 🙂 Congratulations to you for the love and care you show to them and to Lady.
Can you tell me if it is essential to provide shell grit to poultry?
LikeLike
January 31, 2012 at 7:03 am |
Hi F. Relic,
It helps keep their calcium levels up and it provides gritty material in the crop to help grind down the food.
I buy medium shell grit for my Girls and also mix ground up eggshells in with it for the extra calcium. I wash the shells, zap them in the microwave for a minute to kill any nasties, then put them through an ordinary mincer. I collected my own eggshells and had a friend collect hers as well. I have about 2 kilos of eggshells! (Maybe I could sprinkle a spoonful on my mueslii for my own calcium intake.)
It’s nice not to have all those eggshells in the worm farm now.
I’ve read that chooks ‘know’ to eat small pieces of grit that they find in the soil, to grind food in the crop.
I’m not convinced that chooks ‘know’ anything. We don’t have the expression ‘bird brain’ for nothing!
LikeLike
January 30, 2012 at 10:20 am |
Wonderful! Does this mean you can bake a cake now? 🙂
LikeLike
January 31, 2012 at 7:07 am |
Hi L,
Lots of cakes! I’m told the eggs will get even bigger—up to 70 g.
LikeLike