Rhode Island Red Egg Production: What Each Source Says a Hen Lays

Ask around how many eggs a Rhode Island Red lays and you’ll get a different answer from every place you ask. I went and checked. The three big hatcheries that sell Reds don’t agree with each other, and one of them doesn’t agree with itself on its own page. Then a Penn State fact sheet puts heritage breeds at 50 to 100 eggs a year, which is a whole other ballpark.

So I read 12 sources for this page (they’re all listed at the bottom). Five are the hatcheries’ pages and The Livestock Conservancy’s breed page. The other seven are extension guides from state universities, on laying and light and the molt. Where they split, you get both numbers and whose they are. And if you just want a weekly count for your own flock, our free Egg Production Calculator puts each source’s figure side by side.

The short version.

• A production-strain Red lays somewhere around 200 to 300 eggs in her first laying year, going by the hatcheries and the Conservancy.
• McMurray prints 238 a year in its breed table and 280 to 365 in the Q&A on the same page. An egg every single day isn’t how a hen’s body works.
• The strain matters more than the breed name. Penn State puts heritage breeds at 50 to 100 eggs a year.
• Expect the first egg at around 18 to 22 weeks, sometimes later. A pullet who comes of age in short fall days may wait for spring.
• Year two runs 10 to 20 percent lower by Cackle’s count. Most hens slow way down after their second or third year.
• Short days and the fall molt take the most eggs off the count. Steady light and a full feeder keep the rest of it going, plus water that never runs out.

How Many Eggs a Rhode Island Red Lays, by Each Source

Here’s what each one prints for a Red hen, so you can see the spread for yourself.

• Meyer Hatchery says 4 to 6 brown eggs a week. It never turns that into a yearly number.
• Murray McMurray Hatchery says 238 eggs a year in its breed table. The Q&A on the same page says “They will average 280-365 eggs a year”.
• Cackle Hatchery says 200 to 280 a year, and it labels those “estimates only”.
• The Livestock Conservancy says 200 to 300 a year, “starting as early as six months of age”.
• The University of Minnesota gives a figure for hens in general, not Reds. Its hens “will lay roughly six eggs each week”.

Put them all in weeks, though, and you’ll see they line up better than they look. McMurray’s 238 works out to about 4.6 eggs a week, spread over a whole year (that’s my arithmetic). Meyer’s 4 to 6 is a rate for a hen who’s laying, so it runs higher than a yearly average would. Honestly, most of the gap is that they’re answering different questions.

Cackle’s own breed page explains part of the spread. It says the real count moves with the hen’s age and the daylight she gets, plus her feed and her housing. So when you read a hatchery’s number, read it as a good year in good conditions. Not a promise.

If you’re planning a flock around eggs, I’d count on the low end. A dozen eggs a week takes 2 to 3 Reds at Meyer’s rate (12 divided by 6 is 2, and 12 divided by 4 is 3). And that’s a good week in their first year. Not January.

Why 365 Eggs a Year Doesn’t Add Up

McMurray’s top number, 365, means an egg every day for a year straight. The University of Wisconsin’s guide to a laying hen’s life explains why that doesn’t happen. It takes 26 hours for an egg to fully form, so a hen lays a little later each day. Sooner or later she lays too late in the day for the next yolk to get its signal. “She will then skip a day or more before laying another egg”, Wisconsin says.

Run that 26-hour clock for a year without one skip and you get about 337 eggs (8,760 hours in a year divided by 26, my arithmetic again). That’s the ceiling for a hen who never misses. And Wisconsin says she does miss.

The laying curves in the extension guides say the same thing a different way. Oregon State says a pullet hits her peak at about 35 weeks old, laying at “greater than 90 percent”. It spells that out as 9 eggs in 10 days. The peak lasts about 10 weeks, and then laying slowly drops off. UF/IFAS puts a flock’s peak near 90 percent too, and says it slides to about 65 percent after 12 months of lay. So a real laying year is a quick climb and a short top. Then comes a long slope down.

None of that makes McMurray’s Reds bad layers. If you want one number, its own table says 238, and that’s the one I’d plan around. Oregon State gives about 265 a year for a commercial White Leghorn, and it says backyard breeds lay fewer than that.

Production Red or Heritage Red: The Strain Sets the Count

This is the part that surprised me. Penn State Extension says “Common heritage type breeds will lay 50 to 100 eggs a year”. It adds that there’s “great variability between strains”. Its figure for commercial sex-linked hybrids is 240 to 280. Your Red can land on either side of that gap. Turns out it comes down to whose Red she is.

The Livestock Conservancy tells you how that happened. Since the 1940s, it says, Reds have been bred for more efficient egg production. They got smaller and lighter in color along the way, and less broody. The “old-type” Reds the Conservancy most wants to save are bigger and darker. They go broody more, too. It also says hens in heavily selected laying strains are the ones that seldom go broody.

All three hatcheries call their Reds a production strain. Meyer says so in plain words on its breed page. McMurray says its flock was “selectively bred for more efficient egg production and less broodiness”. Cackle calls its line a “heritage production-type strain” it has kept pure since 1936. Cackle sells exhibition lines too, and it warns that those “may not lay as heavily as production-focused lines”.

So before you trust any number, find out where the bird came from. A dark show-line Red from a breeder won’t lay like a hatchery’s production Red. Neither will an old-type bird kept for her broodiness. And if your chicks came out of a bin at the feed store, ask the store which hatchery they came from. That hatchery’s page is the number to check. (Still not sure they’re all hens? Here’s how to tell a Red rooster from a hen, week by week.)

When to Expect the First Egg

You’ll see ages anywhere from 16 weeks to 8 months. Here’s who says what.

• Meyer gives its Reds a laying maturity of 16 to 20 weeks.
• McMurray’s table says 19 weeks to maturity. Its Q&A says Reds “typically begin laying around 18-24 weeks of age”.
• UF/IFAS says 18 to 22 weeks “depending on the breed and season”. Wisconsin and Arizona give the same 18 to 22.
• Oregon State says 18 to 20 weeks.
• Minnesota says around six months, and the Conservancy says a Red can start “as early as six months”.
• Cackle says most breeds start at 5 to 8 months.

I’d notice the catch in two of those. Wisconsin’s 18 to 22 weeks comes with “ideal day length (14-16 hours of light)” attached. UF says the start depends on the season. So if your pullet hits laying age in the short days of late fall, she may hold off until the days get long again. I wouldn’t worry about a quiet pullet in December. I’d wait. Our free When Do Chickens Start Laying? tool works from your birds’ age and breed.

Arizona says pullets can look full grown at 14 to 16 weeks, before their insides are ready. Cackle’s signs that a pullet is close are a red comb and “singing”, that busy chatter a hen makes. Once you see both, start checking the nests.

The feed switch is where you’ll find the advice splits. Penn State says grower feed from 6 to 18 weeks, then a layer ration from 18 weeks on. McMurray suggests layer feed and oyster shell “by 16 weeks of age”. Cackle says to keep them on chick starter right up until they start laying. UF/IFAS explains why the timing matters at all, because “Young birds should not be fed a high calcium layer diet”. I’d go with Penn State’s 18 weeks myself, or the first egg if you see it sooner.

How the Count Drops After the First Year

Cackle’s FAQ gives the clearest year-by-year picture of anything I read. It says “Six months – eighteen months is considered the first laying year”. In year two the eggs run a little bigger, “however, production will be 10%-20% less”. The third and fourth years, it says, “can dramatically decrease”.

Say your hen lays McMurray’s 238 in her first year. Cackle’s drop puts her year two at roughly 190 to 214 eggs (my arithmetic). Nobody I read puts a number on year three, so I won’t either.

The extension guides tell you the same thing, in words instead of percentages.

• Arizona says hens peak in their first 1 to 2 years, and laying often turns sporadic “by age three or four”. The eggs can get bigger as the count falls.
• UF/IFAS says “after two or three years many hens significantly decline in productivity”. It adds that this “varies greatly from bird to bird”.
• Oregon State says hens “produce well until they are 2 to 3 years old”.
• Wisconsin says most flocks lay for 3 to 4 years. The egg count drops each year, and so do egg size and shell quality.
• Minnesota says hens can keep laying for 5 to 10 years, with the peak in the first two.

Your hen can live a good while past her best laying. Penn State says chickens in most small flocks live 8 years, and some make it to 12 or 15. So if your older Red is down to an egg now and then, she’s just getting older. Oregon State puts it flatly: “Eventually, all hens cease egg production”. Wisconsin’s fix for a steady egg basket is to add young pullets every 2 to 3 years. What you do with the retired girls is your call. (Our How Long Do Chickens Live? tool has the lifespans by breed.)

Winter Light and the Fall Molt

Short days will take more eggs off your count than anything else on this page. Cackle says hens may stop laying until spring “When the number of daylight hours falls below 14”. Oregon State says the day has to hold steady or grow at “more than 12 hours per day”, and that “a 14- to 16-hour day is typical”. UF/IFAS says about 14 hours. Minnesota says 12 to 14. Penn State says 14 to 16, and never more than 16 hours for adult birds.

If you add light in winter, the guides mostly agree on how you do it.

• Add it in the morning, and let the birds go to roost with the sunset (Penn State). Wisconsin adds light in the late afternoon as well.
• Make it bright enough to read a newspaper at bird level (UF/IFAS and Oregon State). Minnesota says a regular light bulb is enough.
• Put it on a timer and don’t skip a day. Oregon State says “Even a 1-day lapse can have a negative impact on egg production”.
• Don’t leave it on all night. Cackle says that stresses the birds into picking feathers.

Arizona’s guide takes on the worry that extra light wears a hen out early. It says research shows a steady 14 to 16 hours “does not shorten a hen’s laying lifespan or reduce overall egg production”. That holds as long as her diet is balanced, calcium included. If you’d rather skip the light, UF/IFAS says hens on natural light alone should start laying again in spring.

Then there’s the molt. You can’t light your way out of it. Arizona says most adult hens molt once a year, usually from August through October, and pullets hatched in spring or summer won’t molt their first fall. Mississippi State says “Most hens stop producing eggs until after the molt is completed”. The better layers molt late and fast, it says. They lay for 12 to 14 months first, then drop and regrow their feathers in 2 to 3 months. The early molters are usually the poorer layers, and they can take 4 to 6 months.

Oregon State even suggests letting hens on a light program molt in their second winter. It says to turn the lights off for about 6 weeks so the molt is more complete, then go back to long days. I like that one. Our free Chicken Molting Planner helps you plan your flock’s year around it.

Feed, Oyster Shell and Water Do the Daily Work

Laying is hard on a hen’s body. UF/IFAS says her calcium need goes up “at least four times” once the first eggs come, and nearly all of it goes into shells. It says too little energy or protein can cut laying as well, and so can too little calcium.

Here’s what the guides want you to keep in front of a laying flock.

• A layer ration, free choice, so there’s always feed in the feeder (Oregon State and Penn State).
• Oyster shell in its own feeder, also free choice (Oregon State). UF/IFAS says bigger pieces of calcium break down slower, which may help keep shell-making going overnight while hens don’t eat.
• Water that never runs dry. UF/IFAS says hens are “more sensitive to a lack of water than a lack of feed”. A few hours without either will probably cut laying.
• Fresh feed. UF/IFAS warns that feed kept on the farm longer than two weeks may get moldy. Penn State allows up to 4 weeks in a dry, dark metal container. I’d buy smaller bags and use them up.

If you want a sense of scale, Minnesota says a 6-pound hen eats roughly 3 pounds of feed a week. The hatcheries put a Red hen at about 6.5 pounds. So at Meyer’s 4 to 6 eggs a week, a Red eats about half a pound to three-quarters of a pound of feed for every egg (my arithmetic, using Minnesota’s 6-pound hen). Our Chicken Feed Calculator does the bag math for your flock.

Treats are where the sources split. Penn State says cracked corn and scratch grain “should not be fed to chickens”. Oregon State says to give only what hens will clean up in 15 minutes, “or none at all”. UF/IFAS says scratch and table scraps throw the diet out of balance. But Minnesota calls scratch and oats “a nice treat” that’s “fine in moderation”, and Cackle suggests a handful of scratch a day. Cackle also lists obesity from too many treats among the reasons hens quit laying. So I’d keep your treats small and rare. That’s my call, and you can make your own. (And here’s the short list of foods to keep out of the run entirely.)

Broody Hens, Hidden Nests and Other Missing Eggs

Sometimes your hens are laying just fine. The eggs just aren’t where you look. UF/IFAS lists predators and snakes eating eggs, and hens eating their own. It also lists free-range hens hiding their eggs outside the nests. Cackle’s FAQ names a black snake as one suspect. Minnesota’s list of chicken predators starts with raccoons, and it says to close every small hole in the coop a predator could sneak through.

The fixes the guides give are mostly about the nest.

• Nests at least 12 by 12 inches, with 3 inches of clean pine shavings for bedding, in a darker spot off the floor and away from the roosts (Penn State).
• Enough of them. Penn State says two nests for the first four hens, then one more for every four hens after that. Minnesota says one per 4 to 5 birds, and Arizona says at least one per 4 hens. For 8 hens that’s 2 or 3 nests (my arithmetic).
• Collect often. Arizona says frequent collecting cuts down on egg eating. Oregon State says to collect daily “from nests and hiding places” to head off broodiness. (Here’s how long an egg can safely sit in the coop.)
• Keep free-rangers in a while. Arizona suggests holding them until mid-morning, “when most hens have already laid”.

Broody hens are less of a problem with production Reds than with a lot of breeds. Meyer says its Reds “rarely brood”. McMurray rates them “not at all likely” to sit, and Cackle just says “Variable”. But a broody hen stops laying, and Arizona says it can last 3 to 6 weeks if you leave her be. To break it, Arizona uses a wire-bottom crate with food and water for 3 to 7 days. Cackle uses a wire cage in the light for 3 to 5 days.

Then there’s the bird herself. UF/IFAS says lice can cut a flock’s laying by as much as 10 percent, and heavy infestations by 20 percent. Oregon State says stress can stop laying, “even so minimal as to go unnoticed”. Its list starts with moving and handling. Overheating is on it too, and so is a fright, or going without feed or water. And if the whole flock drops feathers fast, Oregon State says that’s usually a serious stress like running out of water or feed, or a problem with the lights.

Sometimes it’s disease. Oregon State says a drop in eggs is often “the first sign of trouble”. If several birds look off, it says to get professional help. UF/IFAS points you to a state diagnostic lab or your county Extension agent, or a vet. We aren’t vets, so that’s where I’d start too.

So for a flock of production Reds, I’d plan around McMurray’s 238 a year or Cackle’s 200 to 280 for a first-year hen. Then I’d expect less every year after the second. And I’d count winter as the slow season unless you add light.

Updated October 2026: rewritten from the sources below and checked line by line. The old version told a story about one keeper’s first Reds outgrowing an 8-by-8 coop, with a barn, a pasture and a roadside egg stand. That’s gone, and so is every first-hand line. So are its numbers that no source gives: 10 square feet a bird, pounds of oyster shell and grit per 100 pounds of feed, a 20 percent winter feed with corn oil, culling any hen under 4 eggs a week. It suggested an ivermectin dewormer and a vaccination program. It also suggested beak trimming, petroleum jelly on the vent and surgery for a stuck egg. None of that belongs on a page about egg counts, so it’s cut, along with its essential oils and vinegar. It called Reds a flighty breed, and the hatcheries call them calm. It said fine oyster shell flour in the morning primes a hen to lay, when UF/IFAS says coarser pieces may help shell-making overnight. And its four illustrations are now real photos, each one credited under it.

Sources

• Meyer Hatchery: Rhode Island Red Day Old Chicks (the breed page).
• Murray McMurray Hatchery: Rhode Island Red (the breed table and its Q&A).
• Cackle Hatchery: Rhode Island Red (the breed page).
• Cackle Hatchery: Frequently Asked Questions (Egg Production and the laying questions).
• The Livestock Conservancy: Rhode Island Red (the heritage breed page).
• Penn State Extension: Successfully Raising a Small Flock of Laying Chickens (Phillip J. Clauer; updated April 22, 2016).
• UF/IFAS Extension: Factors Affecting Egg Production in Backyard Chicken Flocks (Jacqueline P. Jacob and colleagues; PS029, revised December 2017).
• University of Wisconsin–Madison Extension: Life Cycle of a Laying Hen (Sandra Stuttgen).
• University of Minnesota Extension: Raising Chickens for Eggs.
• Mississippi State University Extension: Molting of Laying Hens.
• University of Arizona Cooperative Extension: Nine Common Reasons Your Hens Aren’t Laying (Ashley Wright; az2186, January 2026).
• Oregon State University Extension: Why Did My Chickens Stop Laying? (James Hermes; PNW 565, reviewed 2023).

Sources checked October 26, 2026. The weekly rates, the 337-egg ceiling, the year-two range, the feed per egg and the nest count are my arithmetic from these sources. We aren’t vets. If several of your birds stop laying and look unwell, call a vet who sees poultry.

Related read: How to Raise Chickens for Eggs — Instant PDF download. Secure checkout by Stripe