Phew, how these first two months of the year have flown by. Normally January seems to be the slowest month of the year, but for some reason it, with February, have simply disappeared from the 2011 calendar. No, I'm not complaining, as once the weather becomes a little warmer and the soil starts to become a little friendlier to us gardeners, then we can crack on with sowing and planting.
What breed of bird should I look out for?
There are several breeds which breeders have over many decades developed for the sole purpose of egg production, meat production or dual purpose, those destined to lay well and at the end of their laying period are suitable for eating.
1. Many people when starting out in their hobby of keeping a few chickens in the garden are often confused by all the various names of breeds they encounter, which would be the same for me if I was to purchase a mobile phone.
For those who require a reliable and hardy layer must aim for the medium size range of breeds on offer. Those hybrids which were designed to be used in large commercial egg production units have been bred basically for intensive production such as Battery Units, Barn, Tier Systems and Commercial Free Range, where the birds are kept in environmentally controlled houses. Whatever the trade name, these birds are known to many as Light Hybrids, have not the feather coverage or the body size to withstand a long period of living in a purely extensive system, ie when they all have to come out of their house during the day, whatever the weather conditions. The other problem is that because of their smaller bone structure their production of good quality shelled eggs can only be expected for the first 10 to 12 months of lay.
Medium size hens are a little larger which means that they are able to produce quality shelled eggs from between 14 to 18 months and in some instances up to two years. This is in contrast to the Light Hybrid with its smaller bone structure and therefore storage space of Calcium Phosphate, so the shell quality begins to disappear by the 10th month of lay. The reason for these lighter hybrids for the commercial world is that they eat slightly less and as the modern day commercial egg producers house thousands, if not millions of layers, the overall reduced consumption is an important issue because it equates to a greater saving in feed costs. This saving in many instances is the decider of whether today's British poultry farmer is able to remain solvent when competing against cheap eggs from abroad.
