Lohmann Brown Chicken Breed: A comprehensive Guide

Lohmann Brown Chickens

Country of origin: Germany
Primary uses: egg production
Lifespan: about 10 years
Egg
- Egg production: 300 eggs per year
- Egg size: large to very large
- Egg color: brown
Weight
- Cock
  - At twenty weeks: 1.5 – 1.7 kg
  - At seventy-two weeks: 1.8 – 2.1 kg
- Hen
  - At twenty weeks: 1.5 – 1.7 kg
  - At the end of laying eggs: 1.9 – 2.2 kg
- Colors: light brown/ chestnut plumage with cream spots around the neck.
- Useful to know: friendly and curious breed. They are also good choices to raise as pets or family fowl.
- Photo

Introduction

With a lot of advantages such as high egg productivity, getting along well with other chicken flocks, easy caring, etc, Lohmann Brown Chicken Breed is common and always one of the best options for professional chicken raisers.

However, if you are new to chickens and want to look for a type of chickens for beginning, let’s read to learn some basic information about Lohmann Brown chickens and find out whether or not they are right for you.

Background and history of the Lohmann Brown Chicken Breed

Lohmann Brown chickens originate from Germany. To be more specific, they are developed by a German livestock company with roots in 1932. Lohmann Brown chickens were generated from Rhode Island chicken breeds with White Rock chicken breeds. Both Rhode Island and White Rock chicken breeds are great layers and produce a numerous quantity of eggs.

Appearance

Lohmann Brown chickens do not have the fancy plumage. Their feathers are light brown or chestnut with cream highlights around the necks as well as on the wings.

Lohmann Brown chicken sizes are medium with long necks, short and upright tails. They also have typical and single combs with yellow legs.

Behavior

Lohmann Brown chickens are known as very friendly, non-aggressive, and docile chickens. Therefore, a lot of families opt for being friends with their children. It is not unusual to see many people raise Lohmann Brown chickens as backyard pets.

Additionally, Lohmann Brown chickens are also good choices to pair up with farmers’ flocks because of their pleasant characteristics.

Environment requirements

Caring is one of the most important effects on chickens’ development, so it is extremely vital to meet their needs sufficiently with proper methods.

Lohmann Brown chickens are quite easy to raise, they can adapt well with both poultry farms or private breeding. Also, they can survive in generous cages comfortably.

Though Lohmann Brown chickens do not require complicated caring, it is still essential and crucial to build a suitable housing system for them to grow.

Heating

Lohmann Brown chicks are more sensitive to heating, so you need to pay more attention and give them more thorough caring.

If you raise Lohman Brown chicks in cages, it would be better to preheat their house before Lohmann Brown chicks arrive. This can keep them away from sudden temperature changes and make them comfortable.

The ideal temperature is about 35 – 36 degrees Celsius. In summer, you should start heating Lohmann Brown chicks’ houses at least twenty-four hours before they get to and preheat their house at least forty-eight hours in winter.

You can adjust the house temperature depending on the chicks’ body temperature. Precisely, you can measure Lohmann Brown chicks’ body temperature by human’s ear thermometer first and adjust the suitable house temperature.

Normally, the optimal chicks’ body temperature is approximately 40 – 41 degrees Celsius and you should modify their house heating to achieve this optimal chicks’s temperature.

After Lohmann Brown chicks get into the house several hours, you can rely on their behaviour to correct the house temperature in the best way. Here are some specific examples:

The house degrees and ventilation are fine if the chicks spread out and move independently.
The house degrees can be too low or it has a wind if the chicks gather together or avoid certain areas.
The house degrees can be too high if the chicks lie with opening wings and gasp for air.

Humidity

The humidity of the Lohmann Brown chicken living area should be 50 – 70% since both a too humid or dry environment can make good conditions for disease appearance.

Lighting

The house lighting depends on the length of natural daylight of each season, so it is necessary to adjust and provide Lohmann Brown chickens with enough and appropriate lighting hours.

If your chickens live in open houses, there are some notices you should take into consider:

Firstly, you should set at least ten hours of lighting for chickens seventeen weeks old and increase from one hour to fourteen houses every week until they are twenty-one weeks old.
Secondly, remember to close the window panes first and turn off the light at night.
Thirdly, remember to switch on the light first and unclose the windows in the morning.
Fourth, do not enhance light hours throughout their rearing period.
Last but not least, do not decrease light hours throughout their production period.

How to raise the Lohmann Brown chicken?

Raising Lohmann Brown chickens depends on a lot of factors. Aside from fulfilling their environmental requirements as we said above, providing them with suitable diets and water sources are also important parts contributing to their development.

Further reading: Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Chickens

Lohmann Brown chickens’ dietary feed

Since Lohmann Brown chickens specialize in producing a numerous quantity of eggs, they demand big requirements for nutrients.

Adults Lohmann Brown chickens’ diets mainly include corn kernels, other grains, vegetables such as boiled mashed potatoes or carrots, fruits, etc. Apart from their primary food, it is necessary to give them some supplements like vitamins or essential minerals.

Pre-layer feed

Pre-layer feed needs a double calcium content in comparison with the rearing period. They need to consume about 2.0 – 2.5% calcium. However, you still correct pre-layer feed according to their age, body weight and start the diet at the right time.

It will be useless if you start using pre-layer feed too early or too long. For instance, if a hen’s laying is scheduled when it is ninety weeks old, you should apply the pre-layer feed after it is seventeen weeks old.

Laying period

Lohmann Brown chickens in their laying period demand a higher nutrition diet to ensure their health and sturdy eggshells.

Their feed intake is around 90 – 100g per day. Make sure to provide Lohmann Brown chickens with enough feed as both too much or too little food can lead to their health problems

If your chickens do not eat the right quantity of food, they can be exhausted and create low quality production and low productivity as well. On the other hand, if Lohmann Brown chickens consume an excess diet, they can suffer some health issues.

Water source

It is crucial to give Lohmann Brown chickens a fresh and clean water source. Water has a close-knit relationship with feed intake. To be more precise, if the chickens are not provided with enough water, their feed intake will decrease.

In addition, when the temperature is higher, chickens tend to consume more water to help cool down their bodies. Make sure not to give Lohmann Brown chickens saltwater since it can have a negative impact on eggshell quality.

You also need to place chickens’ water bowls in suitable positions that help them drink easier.

Lohmann Brown chicken productivity

Is the Lohmann Brown chicken good for eggs?

Definitely, in the group of best egg layers, Lohmann Brown chickens are one of them. They bring a lot of benefits for farmers with their good egg production ability.

Normally, Lohmann Brown chickens lay eggs when they are in the range of the age from 20 to 24 weeks. In some cases, they can start laying earlier at 18 weeks old.

Lohmann Brown hens’ lifespans are very long which are up to 10 years and they are able to lay approximately 300 eggs per year. The number of the eggs increase step by step depending on their age.

Specifically, Lohmann Brown chickens can lay about 320 eggs in seventy-two weeks of age, 360 eggs in eighty weeks of age and 430 eggs in ninety-five weeks of age.

That is why they are on top of prolific egg production chicken breeds. Lohmann Brown chickens’ eggs are large to very large and the eggshells have brown colour.

Is the Lohmann Brown chicken good for meat?

Though Lohmann Brown chickens are mainly raised for egg production, there are a couple of people who used them for meat production as well.

Those chickens are called Lohmann Dual chickens. People usually raise Lohmann Brown cocks for the meat purpose and they take a longer time to grow and be fattened.

Lohmann Dual cocks can consume lower protein diets without negative influences, so you need to keep in mind and serve the appropriate dietary feed. Lower protein diets have not only economic benefits but also ecological advantages.

Common issues of the Lohmann Brown chickens

Luckily, Lohmann Brown chickens have quite strong immune systems and do not suffer dangerous diseases. However, it is essential to vaccinate them in order to prevent them from diseases. Therefore, you should ask the poultry vet for the necessary advice.

Here are a few things worth noting that you should remember before vaccinating their chickens:

Checking the vaccine expiration date. It can cause severe damage or even death if you use expired vaccines for your chickens.
Always ask the poultry vet thoroughly if you want to vaccinate their chickens.
Watch your chickens carefully after having a vaccine to recognize some unusual signs and ensure their health.

Benefits and drawbacks of raising Lohmann Brown chickens

Benefits of raising the Lohmann Brown chickens

Lohmann Brown chickens are quite easy to raise and they also bring a lot of benefits for chicken keepers such as

The biggest benefit is their egg-laying possibility. Like we said, Lohmann Brown chickens can produce more than 300 eggs per year and this is a numerous quantity of eggs for sale.

Besides, Lohmann Brown chickens’ eggs have large to very large sizes and high quality that create large profits for chicken raisers.

In addition, they do not require a lot of complicated caring methods so the raising expense is reasonable and not a burden for farmers.
Lohmann Brown chickens have high viability and long lifespans. Their survival rate is roughly 98% and their life expectancy is up to 10 years.
Finally, the chick hatchability is very high, approximately 80%.

Challenges or drawbacks of raising the Lohmann Brown chicken

Apart from Lohmann Brown chickens’ advantages, we still have trouble raising them

Firstly, Lohmann Brown chickens cannot produce their offspring carrying similar maternal characteristics. Therefore, there is no guarantee that later generations can have excellent laying productivity or bring the same benefits as previous generations.
Secondly, Lohmann Brown hens’ maximum egg-laying capacity is just 80 weeks and it will drop sharply. Therefore, they will be used for meat purpose after that.

Final thoughts

So, is the Lohmann Brown chicken right for you? If you are looking for a chicken breed that is mainly used for egg production, Lohmann Brown chickens are one of the best choices that you should take into account since they have an excellent egg production ability.

Though being able to produce more than 300 eggs per year, Lohmann Brown chickens do not take much expenses for feed and maintenance with simple and easy caring methods.

Raising Lehmonn Brown chickens will not be a severe task if you take up some caution and have the proper solutions to handle their primary demands such as living environment, dietary feed, and vaccination.

However, though Lehmonn Brown chickens are easy to raise and bring plenty of advantages, there are also some disadvantages you should know before keeping them, especially their offspring production possibility and the decrease of egg quantity after peak egg-laying period.

Hopefully, this article can sum up some necessary and key information which can be useful and contributes to your right decision.

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