Study puts egg-stra emphasis on laying longevity

By Tim King
The Land Correspondent

December 22, 2006 10:00 am

— FOLEY — Having a pleasant personality won’t keep a laying hen out of the stew pot.
That is one of the conclusions made by Sue Peterson who is in the second year of a three-year Minnesota Department of Agriculture-funded study to compare the productivity and longevity of four breeds of laying hens. The four breeds Peterson chose were Buff Rock, Leghorn, Speckled Sussex and Silver Gray Dorking.
“The Silver Gray Dorkings were my favorite from a personality perspective,” she said. “They are very mild and very gentle. They are also very lazy. They didn’t want to go outside.”
The Dorkings were also the poorest egg layers of the four breeds.
“They laid so few eggs I couldn’t justify keeping them,” Peterson said. “They found the stew pot this fall. I added Araucanas instead. They lay green to blue eggs. They are now part of the experiment but I haven’t had them long enough to have any results.”
Bias against Leghorns
Peterson said she wanted to make the breed comparison to see which breeds would continue laying the longest. She admitted to being biased against Leghorns.
“One of my big concerns is that if you want to buy eggs in the store there are only a couple of breeds people use. Leghorns are generally one of those breeds,” Peterson said. “I wanted to look into other breeds that might last longer. Most people get new laying hens about every other year or even more frequently. There’s like a five or six-month period where you don’t get eggs. Then you often get small pullet eggs for several weeks. Throughout this time you have feed and housing costs.”
Peterson’s premise was that the Buff Rocks, Speckled Sussex and Dorkings would last longer than the Leghorns. Even though the chicks are somewhat more expensive than the Leghorns, the longer productive life of the three other breeds would easily offset that cost.
“If you only had to replace your birds ever three to five years rather than every other year you could save yourself a lot of money,” she said. “You wouldn’t have that dead time when you’re getting no eggs.”
Results so far
So far she has been proven wrong. Leghorns have almost always produced the most eggs and they appear to not be letting up. Peterson is still compiling her final 2006 data but in 2005 Leghorns out-produced the other breeds in every month except May, June and July. For July the 15 Sussex hens were the top producer, at 275 eggs, followed by the Buff Rock 15 with 221 eggs. The Leghorns came in third with 198. The Dorkings were a distant fourth.
Overall, from April to November of 2005, the Leghorns outpaced the second-place Sussex team by a score of 2,157 to 1,680. Interestingly, no breed appeared to eat more, or less, than any other breed.
The first-year Leghorn performance, perhaps, was to be expected. They are, after all, used in commercial egg-laying operations. But the 2006 performance was surprising to Peterson.
“The Leghorns are continuing to lay well,” Peterson said in November. “They are smaller birds and I didn’t expect that. The Dorkings were really dropping off (and) the other birds have been slowing down somewhat. I’m surprised by that. I’m going to try and get three years of production out of these birds and see what happens.”
Brown vs. white
One thing that didn’t surprise her was that consumers prefer brown eggs of the Sussex and Buff Rock over white eggs. “I go to the farmers market and I always sell out of brown eggs first and then people buy white eggs,” Peterson said. “People accept the white eggs but prefer brown. There’s no difference in what’s inside so I don’t know why. I don’t know how well green eggs will go.”
Although demand for brown eggs is high and, due to the lower production of the hens, they are more expensive to produce, Peterson has not considered charging more for brown eggs. If, in the long run, the Sussex and Buff Rock do produce longer than the Leghorn their eggs may have a lower overall cost. But currently economics favor the white Leghorn egg.
Personality profile
From a personality standpoint Leghorns are substantially different than the mild-mannered, and somewhat lazy, Silver Gray Dorking. They are active and like to go outdoors during most weather conditions. Some people have described this tendency in Leghorns to be “nervous.” Peterson said that given enough room the Leghorn’s more energetic approach to life isn’t a problem. Her pens, in a converted dairy barn, are roughly 12 feet by 24 feet with access to outside foraging, nest boxes, food and water. The pens house 30 chickens of two different breeds.
If being active is an indication of a higher laying capacity, the Araucanas may be productive layers also. They are a light Mediterranean breed, like the Leghorns, and they are also more active than the heavier Sussex and Buff Rock. The Araucanas may be a bit too active, however. They have a tendency to fly out of the pen.
Working with the MDA
When Peterson wanted to change her experiment and get rid of her unproductive Dorkings and replace them with Araucanas she found the staff at the MDA to be understanding.
“The people in the Energy and Sustainable Agriculture Program in the Department are great to work with,” she said. “They really understand what goes on on the farm. They understand the farmers’ problems.”
For more information about Peterson’s project, and other MDA-funded projects, log on to www.mda.state.mn.us/esap/greenbook.html.

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