I hate to say this, but I miss our modern hybrid chickens.  When we went to Ohio a few weeks ago, I did what I used to do with our Golden Comets --- make sure they have an automatic chicken waterer and then toss down enough feed on the ground to last them several days.  Sure, I knew the chickens would gorge during days one and two and then fast a bit, but we'd never had a problem using this method with our Golden Comets in tractors, and our current flock has over two acres of woods to scratch for worms in.

When we came home, the flock looked happy and healthy...but they'd stopped laying.  In fact, even before we left, our six near-adult hens were only averaging about 3.25 eggs per day, or an egg 54% of the time.  Meanwhile, the eggs they did lay were so much smaller than our Golden Comet eggs that I often doubled the eggs in a recipe.

I've heard Mark mutter "freeloaders" under his breath a time or two already --- lack of real eggs will make a man cranky.  On the other hand, I did get the chicks off to a late start last spring, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.  We'll see how well our Black Australorps and Cuckoo Marans lay come spring and put on our thinking caps if they're still not worth their salt.  I really want to keep a chicken that we can reproduce on the farm, but I also want lots of eggs without having to pay for too much feed.  If I have to keep hunting until I find a better breed, I will.