Egg laying

[jpingarra]

How many eggs does an average chicken lay in a day

[klinedancer]

I would imagine one would be enough for any chicken

[boff in]

Correct

[jennymac]

Mine only ever laid one a day

[terrygarcia]

Hen lay eggs not chickens.

[New Forester]

"Chicken" really ought to mean young fowl, not hens, so as Terrygarcia says, the literal answer is none.

 

However, many people nowadays treat it as the name of the species (which is really the domestic fowl), because when you go to the supermarket it's always called chicken -- when did you last see boiling fowl or come to that mutton for sale?.  That's a townie society for you.

 

So, I assume that's what you mean.  Then I suspect you're not including males in this -- as they don't lay any it brings the average down....

 

So, just hens then.  When in lay, hens usually lay slightly less than one a day -- they start in the morning and lay one every 25 hours or so, getting later every day, then they have a day off and start again in the morning.  Very occasionally a hen may lay tommorrow's egg today, so two in a day is not unheard of.

 

But they don't lay all the time.  Good egg-laying breeds might lay from the age of six months for most of the next year.  Then they stop for a bit while moulting, and thereafter lay for much of the time -- perhaps 200 eggs a year.  Commercial hens are culled after a couple of years as the production drops off steadily.

 

Show and meat breeds just lay for reproduction -- in the spring until they've laid a nest-full to sit on.  If you don't let them fill a nest, they keep going for a few weeks.