hens and eggs

[djb78]

Hi all after reading and studying articles on females reproductive system I have learnt that once an embryo has been established and then become a foetus the DNA cells have already determined the number of eggs she will have in her life. Now I am wondering is that so for birds. Will a hen once growing in her egg also have x amount of eggs she can lay in her life or can hens make her own eggs production while she is fit and healthy.

[Canary]

I know from a client of mine that has an egg producing chicken farm that they take about 6 months to reach full production and he is replacing the chooks in each shed at about 18 months of age.

The graph on the website below demonstrates this:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/LyraEDISServle ... sion=32769

I would expect that most birds would have a limited number of eggs in their lifetime, however for most birds I believe that they could still lay eggs for about 6-7 years. I know that most canaries breed well until about 5 years of age.

If you have ever killed an egg producing chicken, then you will find that they have ova/egg yolks inside in all different sizes and stages of development. I am unsure if that is all that they can lay or they keep producing during their life.

[Craig52]

Danny hi,a mate of mine used to breed the the hell out of his gouldian hens by pinching the eggs and fostering under bengalese,(to my disgust)He would get 1 to 2 years out of them.Each hen would lay an average of 30-40 eggs a year and be totally exhausted and start laying mini eggs or jelly bean shaped eggs in the end,which was when they were replaced by a new hen.
I do beleive they are genetically coded by how many eggs they can lay as this chap would get 30-40 eggs out of one hen in a year and it would be burnt out, where as out of another he would get 30-40 eggs a year for two years.He would always hold back young hens from the latter to use as his next breeders.
Craig

[djb78]

Thanks Canary and crocnshas, after reading the articles on women and their limited number of eggs I started to think about my birds and canaries in general. When I was breeding my canaries in full swing i would get 3-4 clutches of babies on average. When this year breeding was coming in I removed alot of my birds and only kept a handful including an old hen. When breeding most of canaries the hens would stop laying at around the 5-6 years of age but this 1 old hen would only lay 2clutches a year with an average of 3 chicks. Well this year she and her old mate 7 years old laid another 2 clutches with only 1 fertile egg. So this is why I'm wondering if this is the case. If hens have a limited amount of eggs they can produce then over breeding hens when young will only diminish the chances of getting your hen to breed through the 5 years they would naturally breed.