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24K views 40 replies 31 participants last post by  Buffy 
#1 ·
For you chicken farmers out there that have experience in this matter, what you do feel is the best egg laying chicken?

Types of chickens I have:

Barred rock
Rhode island red
Australorp
Black jersey giants
Wyandotte

After doing some reading, it seems that some people say the Rhode Island Red is the top egg producer, while others say the Australorp is the best egg laying chicken. Other people say the Barred rock is the best all around chicken.

I live in southeast Texas, and it does not get "that" cold around here. If the temps get into the 20s, we are getting a hard freeze.

In contrast to the winters, we have hot summers. Sometimes the nighttime temps do not get out the lower 90s.

For those of you that have experience with chickens, what kind do you have and what does your egg production look like?
 
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#2 ·
is a duck. duck eggs weigh more than most chicken eggs and their egg laying cycle is shorter so a duck can lay more eggs in a year than chickens. India runners and campbell ducks (from pekin/runner crosses years back) are the best layers. other breeds of duck can match chickens or better. (given ideal conditions for all) Of course some people would miss the white meat a chicken can give you...
Kev if you feel this is off topic feel free to delte it. my purpose was to offer another alternative to since it is about egg producing breeds
 
#4 ·
I find that the pure breeds like those you have listed, have lost a lot of their egg laying ability over the years due to much poor breeding by owners that think a hen, is a hen, is a hen.
If you want egg numbers then hybrid hens are the way to go, not to confuse these with crossbred hens.
I personally have tried many combinations and I'm back where you are, with a pure breed, and I'm carfully trying to get egg numbers up. My reason for this is that my Black Australorps lay a much more nutrient rich/dense egg, certainly not as many eggs as the hybrids, but a much better egg as regards being healthy to eat.
Cheers
 
#5 ·
Having raised chickens and ducks for many years now, I'll give my .02

Ducks are OK and some breeds (Khaki Campbell specifically) can outlay most chickens. Duck eggs do have a different taste & texture though, not better or worse really, just different.

However, ducks are EXTREMELY messy animals and can be a real hassle to care for sometimes, especially if you also have chickens. Ducks love wet environments, chickens do not. Ducks will play and splash in any water they can find, which tends to make a real mess out of your chicken waterers and coop if you give them access. Dragging their wet bodies into your nesting boxes to lay doesn't help things either. They also prefer to sleep outside, rather than in a coop, which makes them vulnerable to predators.

Rhode Island Reds are regarded as the most prolific brown egg layer, White Leghorns if you prefer white eggs. Barred Rocks are probably a close second. I prefer the BR's because they're typically pretty docile, RIR roosters can be downright mean sometimes. BR's are also better cold-weather layers in my opinion, and if they go broody, make better mothers than RIR's. I've never had a Rhode Island Red that successfully hatched & raised a clutch of eggs.
 
#10 ·
mortimer, i learned the difficulties of keeping ducks and chickens together that way too.
i chucked the chickens after a while as being too messy and too hard to deal with parasites and all the other problems. ducks to me were very easy to manage, but you must have a setup for them to be kept by themselves. best wishes
 
#11 ·
I have Barred Rocks. they were only old enough to start laying in December of last year. That said, thoughout the winter, our 8 hens gave us 6 to 11 eggs a day all winter.
I know that sounds rediculous, and it doesnt make sense to me, but it's true. we would collect eggs every morning when we let them out of the coop and every evening when we locked them in the coop for the night, and there were several times we had 10 or 11 eggs....from 8 hens

now since then we have lost one hen, but with the 7 we have left, we still get 6 eggs a day or more
 
#24 ·
Leghorns are the hard-to-dispute best white egg layers. Nearly all commercially produced white store bought eggs are from Leghorns. On the brown egg side... Rhode Island Reds, Sex-links and Barred Rocks are all very good too.

I agree with others. My RIR's are more flighty (won't let you touch them) while my Barred Rock and Black Wyandotte are much more relaxed.



I think you are confusing egg verses meat chickens. Leghorns make the white eggs in the industry and they are a unique breed of chickens.

Cornish Cross are the supreme meat birds in the chicken industry. The Cornish Cross (aka Cornish X or Cornish Rocks) are not a unique breed of chicken, but rather a cross or hybrid of very secretive breeding lines. They have been breed for fast weight gain and large breasts. These birds also do not breed true... ie, their offspring are not as good as their parents. So "the industry" who controls the breeding lines, basically has patent control over this particular cross of chicken.

Cheers!
 
#15 ·
Yes I raised ducks and when it got cold they stopped laying. Then again I kept them on a pond and not in a pen so that might have very well been my problem. Every year about egg time I would put them in a pen and they would nest everywhere in the pen but the nice boxes we built. Once sitting you could move the hen and her eggs to a nest box and she would hatch them out fine.


Living on a farm I don't raise my chickens in a pen either but they still lay year round.
 
#18 ·
Types of chickens I have:

Barred rock
Rhode island red
Australorp
Black jersey giants
Wyandotte
I settled on the Autralorps, Kevin. They take the summer heat in stride. They originated (were developed) in Australia.

http://www.australorps.com/1.html

They lay large brown eggs and I'm very pleased with their laying abilities.

I'm not sure if you bought pullets, or if you have a rooster, but I do suggest picking one breed and running with it.

At one time I had Production Reds (I rate these low), Australorps (rate highly) and banties (also rated highly). Within a year I had the strangest looking chickens that you could imagine that lost all of the good traits of layers and meat birds. Mongrels; pure and simple.

Banties are excellent at hatching and mothering chicks to a very high rate of survival. The eggs are small, but their diet is also small in comparison to larger birds and they can free range fantastically.

Whatever breed you choose I think that you'll be far more pleased in having a true breed versus going all mongrel. :thumb:

If you do go with Australorps and want to trade genetics on down the road I can put hens or roosters in a pet carrier and meet you half way to trade stock. If you do buy an incubator I can mail you fertile eggs. My current stock came from Ideal a few years ago.

http://www.ideal-poultry.com/
 
#19 ·
Dutch welsummers

I have Dutch Welsummers and Rhoad Island Whites

The Welsummers are very consistant and give large light brown speckled eggs and Large Yokes, They are Not Friendly as a Rule.

Road Island Whites are consistant layers also, with large to medium eggs , lite tan,skin colored eggs. They are very Friendly and some show the capacity to learn thru repeated training.
 
#23 ·
I have Dutch Welsummers and Road Island Whites

The Welsummers are very consistant and give large light brown speckled eggs and Large Yokes, They are Not Friendly as a Rule.

Road Island Whites are consistant layers also, with large to medium eggs , lite tan,skin colored eggs. They are very Friendly and some show the capacity to learn thru repeated training.

I have Wellies right now, and according to all I've read on them, their eggs should be a terra cotta colour, not light brown. My girls lay a very dark, sometimes speckled egg. Where did your line come from?
 
#22 ·
My best brown egg layer was a red cross breed. If you want white eggs leghorns or some other cross breed is the best (must be, otherwise commercial companies wouldn't be using them).

My favorite chicken though is Barred Rocks, in my experience they lay almost as good as the cross breed, they will be good mothers (if you are interested) and the eggs will actually hatch. The cross breeds eggs won't hatch, I've tried 2 dozen! Both the males and females where cross breeds though, if that matters. While the barred rocks' eggs hatched great.
 
#26 ·
Many folks have given an answer, but in retrospect, I'd like to ask of your question; what do you mean by best? Do you mean the most prolific, the quietest, the friendliest, the one who lays all year 'round, the one who can go in the stwe-pot when she's finished her laying years, the prettiest or just the one you want because your child(ren) likes it? There are many reasons to choose one breed over another; mine was twofold... I wanted dark brown eggs and I wanted to be able to sex them very early. (mine can be sexed at one day, even by most novices).
 
#27 ·
Kev

If its all about egg laying and getting max production off the minimum amount of feed, the breed you need to look at is the Leghorn in no uncertian terms. The most common egg layer of the breed is the White Leghorn. It makes for a pretty scrawny fryer on even a good day though. But it is a egg laying machine!!!

If you want a good dual purpose chicken that lays good and produces a pretty meaty fryer, then the RIR's would be a tough breed to beat and would likely be my hands down first choice.
 
#30 ·
I have RIR,Australorp,Barr Rock, Comet (Sexlinks).
Its a tie on the RIR's and the sexlinks on egg laying.
I just sold my wyndottes,Marans and lite Bramhas.
I also have Buff Orphingtons, however they are 2 young to lay.
The Buff Orphingtonws are my favorites when it comes to tame and easy going birds, I can walk up and pick them up, the other birds will only let me get within hands distance and I have to grab at them to catch them, with the exception of two sexlinks I own. Having chickens that are easily caught is a big plus in my honest opinion.
 
#32 ·
My .02

I have had several breeds over the past 10 years. First, my hybrids were great, and none lived past 2 years. Every single one (Red-Sex Link) peeterd out and died by the time they were 2 years old.

I loved the Black Australorps, but they caught "broody-ness" like a disease and it spread very quickly to the point that everyone was on maternity leave at the same time!! Nice all around hen though. All the Blk Australorp males met the large stock pot. None had a good disposition and a few were down right evil.

I did like my Wyandotes. They laid well, had a friendly disposition, good muscle development and would make a very good dual purpose chicken. Also, they were quiet and didn't march around the yard bi$ching and moaning all day like the hybrids did. My next chick order will be for more Wyandotes.

Rocks. Very nice all purpose, good laying and quiet. Lovely to look at with that classic "hen" shape. However. My barred rocks that I have now are NOT barred rocks. They are leg horns in a barred rock suit. Some have the floppy leg horn comb and the tiny body and short back. They lay VERY well, much better than my first rocks (I still have 2 rock hens who are still laying at age 7).

Delawares. Maybe my all time favorite. Nice, quiet, even the roosters are lovely and VERY LARGE. The hens are average to better than average layers, but the fact that the boys make such good dressed birds makes up for the hens. I have had 6 roosters over the years and all of them were good boys.

Auraconas. A very interesting breed, they all look different, some with the chops under their beaks, and some without. They lay the blue/green eggs and are fair layers in season. Mine are 3 years old this year and the one rooster I have is a good boy and very pretty. Most all of them took the winter off, but hit hard in February. They are a stand offish breed though, and really don't get friendly.

Rhode Island Red. I'm on the fence with this one. Yes, the laying is good, and most take the winter off, but maybe it's just the hatcheries that I've gotten mine from but they are just down right stupid. If I didn't have other breeds around to show me that chickens can actually be clever I wouldn't know just how dumb these girls are. I have one hen that made a lovely mother and I have another now that may be plotting the demise of the world, but other than those two the rest are ding a lings. AND, at least mine, are NOT dual purpose birds. They hardly have any meat on them at all, and are very scrawny. I'm sure that's because they breed them to lay, not grow meat, like the breed was well known for many years ago.

All in all, from here on out I will be buying more Rocks (from the first hatchery not the feed store), Wyandotes and Delawares, maybe keep on a few of the Auraconas for the cool eggs.
 
#33 ·
For egg production:

White eggs:

White Leghorn

Brown eggs:

Golden Comet, Red Star, or other red sex-link
Black sex-links
Rhode Island Reds

I don't think there is a best chicken breed, because everyone has his own ideas of what he wants in a chicken, but if eggs are what you're looking for, these are the breeds you want.
 
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