Tom Bridgeland wrote:

>
> The two biggest factors controlling how many eggs a chicken will lay
> are genetics, and nutrition.
>
> Top producing breeds will lay one egg every day for most of a year.
> They usually wear out quickly and die young. Other traditional breeds
> lay a single clutch of eggs, perhaps twenty or so, then stop to brood
> them. Meat producing breeds will grow and grow and not lay any eggs
> till they are completely adult, and very large size. They usually lay
> fewer eggs.

I've had chickens for 3 years, Wyandottes which are brown egg layers.
They lay 1 egg a day for 6 days (later each day), and then take a day off.
They lay pretty well during the winter with supplemental lighting. (Chickens
are extremely light-sensitive birds.)  We did have a couple of them turn
broody this year; one actually hatched herself a chick.
Wyandottes, Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, and Plymouth Rocks are good
backyard chickens.  They have a mellower personality than the Leghorns
(white egg layers). You can get them mail order, even in assortments.

I give them commercial (nonmedicated) feed, and also
soaked cooked oats or corn several times a week (they love it).
(My husband laughs that I cook
breakfast for the chickens.) In the summer they
can eat bugs and greens in a large fenced yard;
in the winter I supply vegetables and fruits for them.
In the winter I give them suet cakes for extra energy.  I also crumble
eggshells
and give them to the chickens to keep their calcium up.  The birds are
sturdy
and healthy and need very little care.

The eggs have high deep-yellow to orange yolks, and are delicious, better
than any you can get at the store.

>
> As to food, chickens are omnivores, they will eat anything from meat to
> bugs to fruit to seeds.

I once saw one of my hens with a baby bird (a grackle I think) dangling
from her beak; the others were chasing her frantically trying to get it away
from her.  So much for "vegetarian feed".

    Lynnet