Do smaller eggs produce smaller birds (who lay smaller eggs)?

[farmergirl26]

Hello everyone!
I'm about to start a hatch of 2 doz. eggs. About half of them are the size eggs I enjoy selling--they're just a normal large size like you get from the grocery store. The other half are the size that I always wish were bigger. They're about medium. If I hatch the mediums I know they'll be smaller chicks, but will they also grow to be smaller when mature?

Thank you very much!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hello everyone!
I'm about to start a hatch of 2 doz. eggs. About half of them are the size eggs I enjoy selling--they're just a normal large size like you get from the grocery store. The other half are the size that I always wish were bigger. They're about medium. If I hatch the mediums I know they'll be smaller chicks, but will they also grow to be smaller when mature?

Thank you very much!

Almost two months ago I finished my first pullet hatch. My birds had only been laying for a couple months. Most of them I was satisfied with sizewise, but my polish and my silkie's eggs were a bit smaller than I was comfortable with and I swore I made a mistake after setting. It happened to be my first 100% lockdown to hatch- hatch rate. The chicks seemed so small at hatch, but quickly caught up. They are 7 weeks now and average size for 7 week chicks. My biggest chick now out of the group is actually one of my polish mixes from one of those worriesome small eggs. Obviously I can't vouch for what size eggs they will lay, but seeing as they are growing out to be standard size birds (all mixed breeds), I don't see why their eggs would be any smaller than normal standard eggs when mature.

 

[farmergirl26]

This is wonderful to hear! I mean, if they're anything like humans then their size at birth could have very little to do with their adult size.

But for people who want big-eggers, is this a good practice?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

This is wonderful to hear! I mean, if they're anything like humans then their size at birth could have very little to do with their adult size.

But for people who want big-eggers, is this a good practice?

If you're raising for large egg size, the best practice is to breed your biggest egg layers. If the eggs are smaller due to immaturity of the layers, you really can't judge the potential size of the hens' eggs. If the eggs are small in a mature chicken because she just lays smaller eggs, the probability of her offspring laying smaller eggs would be higher.

 

[dekel18042]

This is wonderful to hear! I mean, if they're anything like humans then their size at birth could have very little to do with their adult size.

But for people who want big-eggers, is this a good practice?

It's known as chickens age their eggs get bigger. So if you hatched something from those pullet eggs and then hatched eggs from the same pair a year later, chances are the egg would be bigger but the genetics identical.
I got my incubator and wanted to hatch purchased eggs but everyone told me to try my own first to get any bugs out of what I was doing. So I had to let the chickens I had reach point of lay. And I allowed them three weeks (certainly not very long) and started collecting eggs. I had 100% fertility and to lockdown. I lost one chick when the egg had pipped and I didn't realize it and other hatchlings rolled the egg. We did have to help two out, probably because they were big (not sure which sex came from which eggs). All the chicks survived and the roosters got huge and the hens had a nice size on them too. Their eggs are in the x-large range and this year we allowed one to hatch some eggs.