Raise Older two years layer

After two years, the farmer will replace the hen. changging the hen in order to keep the production. Keep the old layer is not productive. After two yeasr the egg production is decrease and they have still feed them with some protion chciken feed. it is not profitabel for commercial gees.

in my country, the older hen, called as spunt is sold as meat. Most commercial farm sell the spunt to traditional or modern market. I ask gemini that the commercial farm does not use the spunt as the human food. I have ever eat the spunt and it is good but you need more time to cock because the thick skin and the hard meat.

The spunt is good for soup, stew, and other. You can also make stocks and broth from the sput. Boil the meat with some vegetable such as onion, prey, cabbage, tomato, and else.

In United States, sometimes they use spunt for cat or dog food. the chciken are stunized and processed by the engine. Sometime they got burial the older chicken off course after the chicken. death.

Today some farmer in my country use th spunt for layer too. They just raise for two weeks and they got benefit from some eggs. They know that the spunt is not productive as the layer . They also sell the meat too and get benefit from it. The spunt is cheaper than ayam kam;pung and the taste is almost similar to ayam kampung. Some people prefer Spunt than Ayam kampung, due to its cheap price.

Some farmer use the spunt for croes breed. They mate the layer with ayam kampung. The farm aim is to create the crosbreed that egg production is better than ayam kampung. They succesfully for that. Through , ayam kampung egg is small but it is more expensive than common chicken  eggs. They believe the ayam kampung’s egg is better than layer eggs. Some believe that the egg can cure certain diseases (off course, I do not believe it). 

Gambar oleh Javier Garcia dari Pixabay

The Red Leghorn ; Infamous red variation of Leghorm

I just known that leghorn is white only in color

 This Italian chicken is popular among the hen layer that produced white skin egg. The productivity is also highs the hen can lays at least 250 eggs a year in average . Certainly the chicken just can produce only two years and the farmer should find other pullet to keep the egg production constant. 

The leghorn or the female leghorn is also crossed to green jungle fowl to produce the white Berkisar. Cross the green jungle fowl with the female leghorn. 

The leghorn also has red variation too. The color is similar to new Hampshire or Rhode Island Red. The color is dark brown color. 

As the layer, the hen lays may eggs 150-220 eggs a year. The amount of egg is not as much as the sister or white leghorn.  As the layer, the do not sit the eggs. Hatching its fertile egg needs other chicken or incubator chicken. 

The chicken has wide red blood single comb with many pints. its make the roster looks better than other chickens. while, the hen comb is red small chicken. the shank and beak is yellow. 

White Sumatra Chicken 

Chicken From Bali

Brahma Chicken

Marsh Daisy

It is an English chicken breed that descendant of Old English Game rosters and The Malay Hen. Some breed also tied with Marsh Daisy includes Sicilian Buttercup, Black Hamburg and White Leghorn. The name Marsh daisy comes from its come that similar to Marsh Daisy flower. The comb is similar to Rose comb. The other unique characteristics are willow green legs and white earlobes. The marsh name takes from a marsh-like area. 
The most common of Marsh Daisy is wheaten and brown and others color variation is white, buff and black. The chicken is light type of chicken, a male is 2.95 kilogram (6.5 pound) in weight and a female is 2.5 kilogram (5.5 pound). The hen lays a fair amount of tinted eggs.
 It is ideal for barnyard chicken due it is a good forager and it is hardy. It could control the grass or weed population. I must warn you the chicken has flying ability so it can jump from your backyard; however, the chicken is calm but it is active.
The chicken is rare, listing at Rare BreedSurvival Trust at England.

Swedish Yellow Duck

The duck is the descendant of Swedish blue duck; however,  the plumage is different to its ancestors. The duck is yellow brown in color. The hen shows consistently uniform in color. The hen bill is brownish blue but the drake is greenish-blue in color.
 The breed is a rarely duck breed. People though the bird had been extinct. Only a farm in Bilinge, still keeps the yellow duck. The Swedish Yellow is believed as Khaki Campbell Duck and Blue Swedish duck. It has been introduced first in 1920.
The Swedish yellow duck (Svenk Gul Anka) is different to its ancestor the blue; due it is not a good meat producer. However, the duck is a better layer than its ancestor.
Perhaps the yellow is a selective breed of Swedish blue that lays more eggs. The duck is also large, weighing 7.5 to 8.5 pound (3.5 to 4 kgs).
source:
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5936317_information-yellow-ducks.html

Campbell Duck : The heavy duck from England

similar to the ancestor Wild Mallard. The drake has green beetle color head. 

Campbell duck is the cross duck between the mallard and its ancestor such as Rouen Duck and Indian Runner. Campbell looks fats than other duck breed. The body slender like the muscovy duck. The beak and feet color is dark.
It weighs 4 pounds or two kilograms. The duck could be considered as the dual purpose duck. It can produce meat as much as chicken.

Photo by: Superfantastic
The breed was introduced in 1898 in United States. The duck was crossed by Adale Champbelin England.
Khaki begin to lay the eggs at six month like New Hampshire Chicken or Rhode Island Chicken. They rarely hatch the duckling like Indian runner duck.

Bali Crested Duck
Ancona Duck
Shepherd Indian runner duck
Anatomy of Duck
Cayuga Duck: Native American Duck

Indian Runner The Most Prolific Duck

Indian runner is the most prolific duck in the world. It can lays up to 300 eggs in a year. It is more productive than domesticated layer hen. It begins to lay at six month age. It can lay up to two years effectively.

Yet, the domesticated duck is not originated in modern labs. Ancient people have domesticated the bird from mallard duck. Indian runner is slimmer and higher than the ancestor.

The egg is 80 gram weight. It is light blue color. The yolk sac is bigger than the domesticated Chicken egg. Some duck lay red yolk sac egg. It is because the duck eat prawn or dried prawn. It is more expensive than common duck eggs.

The farmer usually salts this egg with salt and burned hay. In Philippine, the farmer sells embryo duck eggs. They hatch the eggs for 18 days only until the embryo grow inside the egg shell.

The Indian runner drake is almost similar with mallard color duck. The drake head's is light green color. Indian runner has variety color like buff, brown, black, black blue, and white.

Like the ancestor, they can fly high. In West Sumatra, the farmer organizes flying duck competition yearly. The duck are forced to fly to the finish line. The winner is the duck that arrive in finish line first.

Indian runner is the bad mother. It cannot incubate its egg moreover other fowl eggs. Some breeder use chicken or Muscovy duck to hatch the duck eggs. Alternatively, they use incubator machine to hatch it. In Bali and Borneo, the farmer incubates the eggs with paddy skin.

The sexing is quite easy. The drake differs with the hen from its tail. The drake has curly tail. The drake sound is also louder than the female. Some farmer can differ the duckling by pinching the feet. The farmer can differs the duckling sound. To be honest, I am not good at it.

Indian runner are distributed at South East Asia. In Indonesia, There are so many various strain of Indian runner such as Itik Bali, Itik Magelang, Itik Cirebon, Itik Tegal, Itik Bali, Itik Alabio and others. The most beautiful is Bali duck. It has crest in hand and is white color.

Most the duck is risen in beach region. The farmer feed the duck sea fish or dried fish. The farmer just uses simple diet for this bird. They mix rice, paddy, and dried fish.

In Bangkok, people raise it with fish. The duck is allowed swim at fish pool. Off course the, the farmer will not allow the duck swim at the small fish pool.

Photo: From Steve 2008

The duck is useful for pest control too. The farmer often releases the duck at paddy rice to kill golden snail that is paddy rice pest.

Read Also :
Bali Duck : Crested Duck From Bali
Cayuga Duck: A Native American Duck
Ancona Duck: English Duck
Anatomy of  Duck
American Game Fowl

Famous layer hen chicken breed

People has been chicken for egg production. They build a in large scale farm. Eggs is delicious and good food for human being.

There are some favorite layer hen. People domesticated the strain for finding the best layer. When I college at animal husbandry, an office administrator in my campus challenged anyone to produce any hen which can lay two eggs in a day. Off course, he must be crazy. Rarely, we find a hen lays two eggs in a day. If a hen can lays two eggs, the second eggs must be damaged. It because the eggs is lack of nutrition. A hen need interrupted to lay. Here are some famous layer hen.

Photo by: Putney Pics

White leghorn Chicken
This is the most famous domesticated strain layer hen. Actually this hen come from Italy. The color of white leghorn is white, but other leghorn has variety color like buff, black, red, dark brown, light brown, black tailed red. light brown, buff columbian, barred, exchequer and silver. This hen can produce eggs up to 280 eggs a year.

Plymouth rock
The chicken is domesticated in New England, United States. The breeder cross dozen strain chicken to get Plymouth rock that can produce good meat and eggs. The color of skin is yellow. I have cared barred old Plymouth rock and it can lay some eggs. The color is beautiful especially the cock has the beautiful train tail. Plymouth hen can lay up to 285 eggs a year.

White Cornish
This is a good meat chicken. It weight could reach 8 lbs so it is enough for four people. The chicken look strong with wide chest like a bodybuilder. The plumage color is white, red, dark, and laced red. The White Cornish is risen for eggs and meat. It has beautiful plumage to and it is good for pet too.

Read Also:
Rhode Island Red
Chantecler Canadian Chicken breed
New Hampshire Chicken
Orpington Chicken Profile

Vorwerk Chicken : Germany dual purpose chicken with beautiful dark golden feather

Oscar Vorwerk, an Germany chicken breeder, has developed a chicken breed that is called Vorwerk. This chicken has wonderful dark golden color. The head, and neck toward to shoulder is dark brown and color. The tail is also brown in color and the remain feather is buff in color. Mr Vorwerk has developed this chicken from various chicken breed such as Buff Orpington, Lakenvender, Buff Sussex, and Andalusian. I think the buff color generate from Orpington and Sussex, while the dark color is generate from Andalusian. i love the combination black and brown in this chicken. 

Like Europe Chicken Class, Vorwerk is fat with thick plumage. The Vorwerk is blocky build in shape. The thick plumage   can cover the chicken skin from the winter. This chicken is well-adaptable with bad weather. The rooster is 2.5 - 3.2 kilogram, while the hen is 2-2.5 kg in weight. Vorwek is also available in Bantam version, which is 650-765 in weight. The chicken has wide and long breast. It also produce much meat.

Vorwerk also produce much eggs so this chicken is  dual purpose chicken breed. A hen can lays approximately 170 eggs in a year. This is not as much as othe rdual puprose chciken such as Rhode Island or New Hampshire Red.  The hen also start laying eggs at day 165 or six month. This is a fast layer like Rhode Island Red.

The hen is not go brody. the Vorwerk hen seldom hatch its eggs. they just let the egg after laying it. 

Egyptian Fayoumi : A Productive laying eggs Hen from Egypt

Egyptian Fayoumi is an Egyptian chicken breed. This chicken origin is Fayoumi Governorate, Southwest of Cairo. This chicken is tiny or small class breed. The roosters weigh only two kilos or (4.5 pound); while, the hen weighs 1.6 kilo (3.5 pound). Rosters have silver heads, neck, back and saddle. The rest color is black white barred.
It has moderately large single comb, red double wattles, and red earlobes. The feet are black in color and no feather. The bird is hardy. It can resist to viral and bacterial infection.
In my country, people called it as Arabian Chicken. The first people imported this chicken from Saudi Arabian. We use this chicken to produce egg only. They can produce eggs up to 250 like other commercial egg laying chicken. Unfortunately, the egg is small like their body. This bird cannot hatch the eggs to or they are not likely go broody. In my country, farmer care the chicken for organic eggs. They can live at free range area. They have reputation as good foragers. The farmer also crosses this chicken with other best laying chicken to increase the eggs production.
Even this bird is superior but this bird has been not recognized by American Poultry Association
read also
Campine Chicken
White Egg laying chicken
Famous domesticated layer hen

How to keep your hen laying in winter

In cold winter, hen is difficult to lay. Some chicken cannot lay in winter like Mediterranean class or Asia Class. Naturally, a hen will stop laying in winter. They need to rest their body that it is important for the body. For backyard chicken, you have better to rest your chicken rather than forcing it to lay.

If you have a flock for business, you can "force" the eggs to lay. It is because you will lose if they take the rest. They still must pay for chicken food, human, electric, and others.

If you still want to produce eggs in winter, you can do like this:

1. Add additional light in the cage. It can reduce their cold suffered in winter.

2. Provide warm water. Do not let the water frozen. Lack of water can make the chicken stop to lay. You can put electric dog bowl that keep the water frozen. You can replace the water often.

3. Food the chicken food with high protein. They need consumption for carbohydrate to warm their body.  They also need protein and calcium that is very important for egg production. Some article suggest kitchen chow and grind with cracked corn. I think it is not good because kitten chow can affect the taste of egg. You should buy the food at poultry shop or you can mix high protein chicken food. The protein for food is: soy, meat powder, fish powder, and more.

4. The air circulation must be good. Make a good ventilation system so the hen can breath well. Do not close the coop so the air cannot in or out.

5. Put hay inside the coop so the hen can lay in it. It can make the chicken warm.

Notice: Force your hen lay in winter could be loss you. To make the hen lays in winter, you need to provide additional food, light and human power. You must pay more for labor too because only few people who want works in winter. Therefore, you need to calculate the benefit of laying eggs in winter. Compare the cost with the egg prices.

Rhode Island White

Rhode Island White is not famous as their brother Rhode Island Red, but it has been recognized by American Poultry Association (APA) in 1922. Like the Red, this chicken is dual purpose. The chicken bring White rose comb Leghorn, White Wyandottes, and Partridge Cochin. Therefore this chicken has two type comb : single and rose comb. 

The cock weighs 8.5 lbs (3.6 kilos); while, the hen weighs 6.5 lbs (3 kilos). Now, the chicken is very rare because the breeder does not want to care this breed. Perhaps they prefer the Red.

The body is fat like most American Class chicken. They have brick-rice appearance  like the Red. The cock tail is curve short like Cochin. The breast deep, full, and round.

Some breeder also cross the white with the red that result Red Sex Links Hybrid Chicken.

It has good reputation in laying, The hen could lays up to 306 eggs in year or similar with Rhode Island Red. It can lay in winter too. This chicken is easy to going and pleasant so it is good for backyard farm. 
Photo by : Steven L. Johnson

Leghorn profile

The bird is originated at Tuscany, Central Italian. But some country such as United States, Denmark and Britain developed this strain well.This chicken is famous breed in the world as commercial farm layer. It is imported to United States in 18th century. American Poultry Association (APA) recognized this strain.

They have color variation like white, red, black red tail, grey, partridge, red, columbian, golden duckwing, and so on. The most layer is white leghorn. The skin, the beak, and the shank is yellow in color. Few leghorn has rose comb.

It is 3-4 pounds in weight. The body is slim so this bird is not viable for meat. Leghorn is viable layer strain. The hen can lay up to 280 eggs in a year which is lower than New Hampshire red. They lay white eggs.The hen also has not broodiness ability. Therefore, you cannot use the chicken to hatch the eggs.

Rhode Island Red profile

Rhode Island Red is the famous dual purpose chicken. The hen can lay up to 300 eggs a year. The egg color is brown. The cock weight is 4.5 kilogram. Meanwhile the hen is 3. 6 kilogram. It was originated at Massachusetts, Rhode Island, United States. The chicken is developed in 19th century. The parents of the chicken are Malay, Shanghai, Java, and Brown leghorn.

Both cook and hen look fat. The thick plumage covers the yellow skin. The legs and shanks are yellow.It has blood red single comb. Some Rhode Island Red has also the color is buff to red. The cock color is more colorific than the hen. It because the fickle feather shining when sun shine.

It is a descendant of gallus bankiva or red jungle fowl. The Rhode Island Red also has similar characteristics of gallus bankiva like single comb, and saddle feather color.

This is the most successful dual chicken breed. It is hardy chicken and can lay many eggs. The breeder always developed the chicken to get best chicken which has produce more meat and eggs.

Wyandotte Bantam Chickens

Wyandotte is meat purpose chicken. It is risen for its meat. There is also small Wyandotte that is called Wyandotte Bantam. The breeder has success to domesticated Wyandotte Bantam from its ancestor big Wyandotte. The Wyandotte Bantam have various color like silver penciled, golden laced, silver laced, white, columbian and buff columbian and buff. The tail is not short unlike common chicken that has long tail.



The chicken is very hard that suitable in cold climate region. The feather is so thick. Therefore it is good for hatching the eggs.  It is almost round shape body. This is a medium size chicken because it is 30 ounces weight. This chicken is originated in United States in 1870.

Due to docile and friendly personality, this bird is good for your backyard. Most Wyandotte cock is friendly to human so it may be good for your kids. It lay brown eggs. This egg production is 200 a year. This bird is the best mother. Sometimes, it brood other chick. 

Photo by: graibeard

read also : famous bantam heritage