Laying Chickens - Raising Poultry - page 113

tioned so far and will give you a great deal of frustration if you try to confine them
to a small pen with an open outdoor runway. They like their freedom and to be able
to roam and exercise. They occur in beautiful color patterns including Silver Penciled,
Golden Penciled, Golden Spangled, and Silver Spangled, and pure colors such as Black
and Blue.
All Hamburgs are good layers. The eggs are not as large as the above breeds, perhaps,
but they are the perfect bird for the small backyard raiser who has a confined pen and
wants a creature that's beautiful to look at. They will do well in a chicken tractor, as they
like to forage and yet must be confined and kept from flying into the trees. This breed
is very spirited and is great if you not are overly concerned about the size of the eggs.
What they lack in egg size they make up for in beauty and they are very efficient when
it comes to feed conversion — their smaller body size means they need less feed to pro-
duce lots of eggs.
Brown-egg-laying purebred chickens have many representatives, each with its own
regional adaptations and uses. Some of the top producers, of course, are the Black Aus-
tralorps, New Hampshire Reds, and Rhode Island Reds, all of which have long been
known for their egg-laying abilities. New Hampshire Reds and Rhode Island Reds are
both large American breeds developed in the United States that lay large brown eggs.
Their eggs are not dark brown, but more of a tinted color.
New Hampshire Reds are pale red, almost orange, with some black ticking in the
neck feathers. They make a nice dual-purpose bird , meaning that not only are they
a great egg-laying bird, but they also can be harvested for meat. The males are easy
to clean and make a bright carcass. The hens have reputations for laying extra-large to
jumbo-size eggs and seem to take weather changes in stride and with little fluctuation in
productivity.
Rhode Island Reds come in both single- and rose-comb varieties. There are many
chicks sold as Rhode Island Reds that are really Production Reds. True Rhode Island
Reds are very dark in color; in fact, from a long distance they appear to be black. They
lay a medium-brown-colored egg that usually grades large to extra-large.
Black Australorps are, of course, black in color and were specifically bred for high
production. They lay a nice brown egg and are excellent foragers.
The green-blue-egg-laying breeds are Ameraucanas and Araucanas and their deriv-
atives and crosses. These types tend to produce eggs fairly evenly throughout most of
the year with no particular peak season.
One cannot forget the Jersey Giants , which are the largest of the chickens. They
come in three colors: Black, Blue, and White. Their size is impressive and their egg size
can be as well. Some raisers become discouraged, however, because they take a longer
time to reach maturity and generally don't start laying eggs until between 22 and 24