Egg-O-Nomics 2020

The Chicken, The Molt and The Egg

Bears, bees, bats, groundhogs and chipmunks hibernate.

Geese, Monarch butterflies, whales, wildebeast and hummingbirds migrate (Would someone please remind those geese who stick around to poop on our yards and driveways?).

Chickens molt. As do cicadas, snakes and crustaceans.

You may wonder what molting has to do with finding few if any eggs for as long as 4 months during late fall and early winter.

Molting has EVERYTHING to do with egg production, so stay with me here and keep reading.

Molting is linked to decreasing daylight hours during fall and winter, so if you are inclined to burrow on your couch or fly south or shop for a new summer wardrobe during the dark days, you too are following the seasonal rhythm of chickens and many other creatures.

Chickens have as many as 8,500 feathers to change out every year. That’s a lot of sweaters and tank tops to switch from winter to summer. Feathers not only define who they are, they are barriers to cold, heat, wet, bugs and insects. Feathers are also sexy, so crows the rooster. During the spring and summer months feathers take a beating so before winter sets in chickens shed all 8,500 feathers and grow new ones for staying warm and dry during winter as well as blanketing their their new chicks in the spring. 

It can take 4 to 16 weeks (2-4 months) to change out 8,500 feathers which are 85% protein. Their bodies are very tender as the new feather shafts break through.

Inside the follicle of an emerging feather (pin feather) there is a rich blood supply that will bleed if broken. No wonder they are grumpy, shy and extra hungry. Molting consumes a lot of their energy and nutrition. Plus they are very self conscious, they can’t do a thing with their hair.

Imagine what it might feel like to have 8,500 pins and needles poking through your skin for 2-4 months. They need extra protein and generally more food as they replenish all their spent energy shedding and growing new feathers. 

All of this is to say, during their 2-4 month molt there is no energy or interest in laying eggs. Hens are not multi taskers; It is just not possible to shed feathers, grow feathers AND push out eggs.

The chicken oviduct, think of it as an assembly line, is 25 to 27 inches long. All the eggs a chicken can lay in her lifetime (in the form of teensy weensy ova) are stored in her single ovary when she hatches. It takes an average of 24 – 26 hours to make and deliver one egg from an itty bitty yolk, through the 5 departments of the oivduct assembly line. Nearly 20 hours of that time is spent in the shell-making and paint department. Did you know the shell color is determined by the ear lobe? More on that in a future post.

I think this is the coolest virtual video of how an egg is made. It’s an exciting 10 minutes so pour yourself a cuppa and enjoy. 24 hours reduced to ten minutes, it’s chicken magic.

According to USDA, The American Egg Board and the US Poultry and Egg Association, a hen lays an average of 260 -275 eggs per year.

But wait!

That statistic really only applies to her peak laying, which is about 80 weeks or 1 1/2 years. This assumes we don’t lose hens to eagle, hawk, racoon, coyote, dog, weird disease or they just stop laying because of other stress factors in their life.

And then what do we do at the end of one and half years of consistent laying? They will continue to lay eggs as they age, though more randomly. As they age, the eggs will get fewer and smaller. Or sometimes larger. The itty bitty eggs from an old biddy usually are all white with no yolk. Some of us let old hens live out their life in place just as I want to do. Other chicken owners will gift them to anyone who wants a few random layers as pets and many turn them into delicious soup.

A hen’s first eggs (usually at about 16 – 20 weeks) tend to be smaller as the hen gets the hang of the oviduct assembly line process. A hen needs 14 – 16 hours of daylight to lay the previously mentioned predetermined number of eggs. Curiously, while she needs that daylight directly in her eyes to inspire her to deliver, she will typically lay her eggs in a dark, private, cozy nest box, hay basket or goat stall. Sometimes they share, even though there are plenty of other nests available.

In conclusion, eggs are a seasonal food, just like a ripe, sweet-tart juicy tomato. As if on cue, my hens started laying again the day after winter solstice. An added one second of daylight, an additional 4 eggs and the cycle begins again. Each day more eggs until at least the spring equinox in March, relatively steady production until summer solstice in June, the slow tapering of production until the fall equinox in September and the circle of life and eggs goes round and round.

Savor them when they are abundant, lust them when they scarce, and eat more kale!