January 6-10 Happy Hen Farms Weekly Newsletter: Chicken Breeds Part 1 of 3

Chicken Breeds Part 1 of 3

Good Afternoon,

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year, and is now ready for 2020! 

Everyday this week is open for deliveries! If you pick up at my grandparent's store, they are open Tuesday and Thursday (10-3) and Friday (10-5). 

Eggs: 

I have about 27 Medium dozen's available, and about 10 Large dozen's available to start the week off. As the medium eggs have, and are continuing, to grow in size, they will be $3/dozen starting tomorrow. (1/6/2020)

Newsletter: 

This week, I decided to do a short newsletter on chicken breeds. Are there chickens that just lay eggs? What about just meat? Or both? One of the most common misconceptions about chicken farming is that the chicken that lays the egg for breakfast, also becomes the chicken for dinner that night. In this newsletter, I will talk about one of the egg laying breeds used in commercial production, as well as for home use.

In the U.S.A alone, there is approximately 328 million egg laying hens. This number most likely doesn't include small flock's of chickens like mine. In total, those 328 million hens produce about 110 billion eggs a year. Basically all of the egg laying hens are one of two "breeds." The long time reigning queen of the egg industry would be (concisely put) the White Leghorn. This is one of mine (below).

 The reason why I said "concisely put" was because there are many different "versions" of the White Leghorn. The one pictured above is a Dekalb White. Most of the names are derived from the breeding company(s), and they each deal with improving genetics for a more efficient chicken. 

Just to use the Dekalb White as the example, on average they weigh 3-3.5 lbs when mature. Compared with old purebred chickens, which weigh anywhere from 4.5-10 lbs, the Dekalb white takes less feed to maintain body weight and produces a ton of eggs. Whereas the purebred chickens take three or four times the feed, and produce way less eggs.

To give you some numbers, when I had all purebred chickens, they were eating about a quarter pound of feed per bird, per day. Now that 95% of my chickens are strictly egg breeds, I am able to feed slightly less than a quarter pound of feed per bird, per day. My laying percentages (ratio of eggs:total flock population) has risen from about 55% lay ratio, to 80%-94%. All because of a more efficient chicken. 

I have experimented with different amounts of feed per day, in order to determine just about how much feed is needed to keep the hens in good shape, as well as keep egg production high, without wasting feed. The best amount of feed per hen, in my experience, has been 0.20-0.23 lb of feed/hen/day. After that amount, I haven't noticed any improvement in egg production. Rather, the chickens just eat the feed, utilize what they need, then poop out the excess. So the more they get fed (past a quarter pound of feed), the more they waste. 

One of my friends who works on an egg farm in Iowa (about 700,000 hens), told me that they usually try to shoot for 23 lbs of feed for every 100 hens, on a daily basis (0.23 lb/day/hen). I have been fortunate enough to get within a close ballpark of the industry feeding rate, which is amazing, considering that my chickens do not have supplemental light, or temperature controlled housing! 

So, commercial egg production consists of "breeds" of chickens that convert feed to eggs efficiently, instead of feed to meat. 

This week, you got some info on the chicken that makes you breakfast, so next week, you can learn about the chicken that makes you dinner (or lunch, or maybe even breakfast too?) 

As always, questions or concerns are always welcome!

Thank You!