WHEN HENS LAY BIGGEST EGGS: AND WHY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 16, 26 February 1918, Page 2

WHEN HENS LAY BIGGEST EGGS: AND WHY.

Eggs laid by abnormal hens during some egg-laying contests under authoritative control, ‘ have disproved the popular belief that small and large eggs are produced respectively at the beginning and end of a hen’s laying period. It is said that during a twenty months’ period the number of eggs laid by 1,280 hens was 199,037. The hens that laid small or large eggs, or both, have been properly recorded and “credited with that amount.” In an extraordinary instance one hen laid fourteen small eggs at different periods. When removed from the pen, she did not have a single normal egg to her credit. Two small eggs out of a total of 103 indicates a resting period after the production of a small egg, whereas in every other case the small egg was found .in a practically continuous series of normal eggs. It seems obvious, therefore, that small eggs may be laid at any t time, but that most small eggs are laid while hens are at the height of production. The interruptions noted were not l , great enough to term real resting periods.

The records showed that as a general rule, hens do not lay extremely small eggs at the beginning of their laying periods, but that when the hen is laying most heavily, the small eggs are produced. It is folly to presume that the small egg is always the hen’s first attempt or that it comes at the end of her laying period and represents exhausted power. The small egg is probably due to some mechanical interruption or interference in the hen’s normal functions. Normal development can be stunted by many causes, such as foreign element, or an undeveloped yolk drawn into the passage where the shells are formed. Eighty-nine of the large eggs where found to average 18.35 pounds or an average weight of .206 of a pound. Ninety-nine per cent, of these eggs were laid at the time of heaviest; production. It has been said that the cause of hens laying double yoked eggs is due probably to the simultaneous liberation of two yolks and their incorporation in a single set of egg membranes.

In most cases it appeared that there was no more rest before laying a large egg than after. Forty-five of the large eggs were laid without any previous resting period, thirty-one with a resting period of one day before, and ten with a resting period of two days.