BEST CHICKENS FOR EGGS
Looking for the best layers for your backyard chicken flock? While every hen lays eggs, not all breeds are as prolific as others. If you are hoping to have eggs every day from your hens, you will want to make sure you have the right breed.
White Leghorn
The White Leghorn is the most popular chicken breed around the world, and with good reason. The Leghorn hen can lay about 300 eggs per year. Leghorns mature early and start laying at four to five months of age.
The Leghorn’s eggs are large and slightly off white in color. The hens are nervous and will avoid human contact if possible, however, so they are not always good as pets.
White Leghorns, like most good layers, rarely go broody, so if you want to hatch out some eggs to raise chicks, you will need either another breed to set them, or an incubator.
Winter can mean frostbite in a Leghorn’s comb, so they are not good cold-weather chickens.
Rhode Island Red
These are one of the best laying chickens for brown eggs, but they are aggressive (especially the roosters).
These chickens adapt well to close confinement and are hardy in nearly all climates, but are prone to frostbite on their combs.
This breed is usually laying by 5-6 months of age and are productive producers of medium brown eggs.
Red Star and Black Star Sex linked
Well-known for their large eggs of brown color and productive egg-laying, this breed is very popular. They are docile and make very good pets that do well with children.
These hens convert food intake to eggs at a good rate and are one of the few breeds that continues to lay during the winter months. When raised from chicks, you can expect to see the first eggs when they are about four and a half months old. By 6 months old they will be producing eggs every day.
The breed gets its name because of its breed-specific gene that causes chicks to have different colors, making it easy to separate females from males. This makes it easy not to buy unwanted roosters.
This breed is a good choice for small egg sellers and family projects.
Roosters or No Roosters?
For a purely egg-laying production, there is no need to keep roosters. You only need to keep roosters if you want fertile eggs. Hatching baby chicks can increase your flock size or allow for broilers, but there is no reason to house a rooster if you do not plan to do this.
Productivity Limits of Hens
Hens produce eggs for three to four years. Egg production with most hens will start to decline at about 3 years of age. These chickens are then ready for the pot for stews or chicken and dumplings.
Some may prefer to make friends with their hens and put the older ones out to pasture instead.
Click on Best Laying Chickens for much more information.
If you are interested in building your own hen house, take a look at Chicken Coop Plans.