With time on my hands I have been reminiscing about some of my Ag classes from back in the 70's. I had a poultry science class taught by professor emeritus J. Parker in 1976. From him I learned that the first recorded instance of a chicken laying over 300 eggs in a year was from a white leghorn by the name of "Lady MacDuff" who played 303 eggs in 1913. From Oregon State's poultry program. GO BEAVS!

She is most likely the grandmother of all the high egg producing leghorn strains of today that easily produce more than 300 eggs in a year.

You went to chicken school?

now, they claim a lot of chickens can lay that many a year. I assume that is under optimal conditions, but still impressive.

As if that was a bad thing? It did cut into my nutria trapping some though.

100 years ago the science of egg production was just ramping up. Average egg production around 1910 was 85 eggs per hen per year. One can imagine the excitement in the industry to have the potential to produce 300+ eggs per hen per year.

When I was a kid there were still lots of little producers around that ran flocks of a 1000 hens or less. Except for the farmer's market size free range flocks this no longer exists.

Michigan State still have a very large poultry science department.

That’s less than an egg a day providing a hen just lays one. Of course I know nothing about chickens except they taste good fried.

Not at all BP,just didnt know there even was a chicken school.

I was a general Ag major. Crop science, poultry science, animal science, entomology, horticulture, plant pathology......etc etc.

ISA Browns are one of many breeds that claim to be capable of that 300/year goal. It is a top secret hybrid, but certainly including RI Red and Leghorn (probably decendents of Lady McDuff).

I just rescued a couple dozen 1 year olds from an Amish farm. Already, I'm convinced they will pay their rent.

I wonder what the average RIR or Barred Rock lays in a year?

LOL! ...of course it had to be the first reply i read.

Lug, I was trying to google egg laying breeds and my alma mater's poultry program (Oregon State) and saw that they had a barred rock in the early 1920's that also surpassed the 300 egg milestone.

My mixed flock of 22 birds averages about 5 eggs per bird per week, so about 250 eggs per year from most of the modern layer breeds. Birds in normal production lay 1 egg every 30 hours or so....some get closer to every 25 hours. I was looking after neighbor's flock of 5 pullets.......they were averaging 4 eggs per day. First year pullets get after it better than older birds.

Best brown egg layers are the sex links (Golden Comets, etc) and for me, RIR and Wyandottes. Best whites are still the leghorns. Leghorns are the laying hen equivalent to a dairy cow. Small, scrawny egg laying machines.

Most laying hens have something like 750 eggs in them when born. They will burn through about 500 +/- in the first two years, and then start to taper off after that. Hens in commercial flocks are only kept in production for about 24 months or so, then off to the soup kitchen.

Good information, thanks guys.

Less than 24 months. In the old days they would bring the hens through a molt. In this day and age they discard the hens before they get there. One of my brothers used to buy discarded hens from an egg laying operation near him for a buck a bird and they were still laying 4-5 eggs per week! (He would put them out on pasture and sell free range eggs for a tidy sum and have a smaller investment than raising them from chicks).

I was looking at Indian runner ducks they also put out numbers 300-330 eggs a year I thought hat was impressive big eggs also

Yes indeed. Those ducks are something else. I have also been impressed by coturnix quail egg production. They produce more grams of egg per grams of feed than any other poultry.

(Had to use the metric system because I'm scientist)

I have Rhode Island reds and golden comets and leghorn, but I prefer the Rhode Island reds. I just bought 15 chicks for the kiddos and we just finished the pen for them. I bought 9 reds, 4 Amerecaunas and 2 barred rock hens. It's nice to have a fresh
supply of eggs

The record is held by a white leghorn, at 371 eggs in 364 days