How Many Eggs Does a Sebright Lay Per Year?
A Sebright hen lays about 80 small cream eggs a year — Conservancy 60–80 ceiling, not a middle. Exhibition first; month by month and a flock formula.
A Sebright hen lays about 80 small cream eggs per year. That is the ceiling of every closed institutional band — the Conservancy 60–80, Oklahoma State 50–80, RBST 50–80 — not a middle, and the Conservancy's own 2026 comparison chart rates the breed simply Poor with no number. Eggs are not the point: this is an exhibition true bantam, the Conservancy calls it challenging for a beginner due to poor laying, and 80 small eggs is nearer 53 large-egg equivalents. Hens are not broody and lack maternal instinct, so hatching means an incubator or another breed. They are also susceptible to Marek's disease and should be vaccinated. Cocks are hen-feathered from excess aromatase activity in feather follicles — a documented mechanism, though its exact genetic cause is still unsettled, not an egg-count trait. The breed sits at Watch on the Conservancy's Conservation Priority List. Expect weaker output in cold, damp winters since the breed does best in warm, dry climates.
Want the full picture on this breed? See our Sebright breed profile — temperament, care needs, and climate fit.
Use the egg production calculator to model your specific flock.
Production ranges
| Scenario | Annual eggs | Avg / week | Avg / day | When this happens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | ~50 | ~1.0 | ~0.14 | Ornamental, inbred, or exhibition-strain stock |
| Normal | ~80 | ~1.5 | ~0.22 | Typical backyard hen, Year 1 to 2, dry coop, layer feed, natural daylight |
| High | ~100 | ~1.9 | ~0.27 | Hoover’s hatchery figure, Year 1, well managed |
The Normal row is the most realistic starting point for planning. It assumes a healthy first or second year hen on layer feed, in a dry coop, whose year is not being spent as a show bird first. About one to two small eggs a week across the year is the honest planning figure — not the daily egg a production hybrid will give you, and not a promise that a well-kept hen will beat 80.
80 is a ceiling, and that is the finding, not a rounding error. The breed page says about 60–80. Oklahoma State says 50 to 80. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust says 50–80. No extension or conservation document we opened promises more than 80, and a well-kept hen is not being told she will do better. The Conservancy’s own Heritage Chicken Breed Comparison Chart (2026) rates Rate of Lay simply Poor, with no integer at all. So the spread on this page runs downward from Normal — the exact mirror of Blue Andalusian, where Normal sat at the institutional floor and the spread ran up. Our High of 100 is Hoover’s, a hatchery figure above every institutional print, and even Hoover’s does not present it as a production target (see High, below).
Eggs are not the point
Say it before the arithmetic. The Conservancy’s characteristics line is “Challenging for a beginner due to poor laying; limited numbers of eggs.” Skinner’s Chicken Breeds and Varieties (A2880) treats bantams as exhibition miniatures and defers annual detail to the American Bantam Association. Penn State Extension’s small-scale egg-production bulletin says bantam chickens are not suited to that job because of egg size. The 2026 chart’s Purpose cell reads “Eggs, Show”; its Rate of Lay cell is Poor. A reader who landed here from an egg-count search has the right page and the wrong expectation: this is an exhibition true bantam that lays a little.
The eggs are small. Skinner’s UW Bantams bulletin puts bantam eggs at about two-thirds the size of large-fowl eggs (often 15 to 20 ounces per dozen). Maine Bulletin #2104 puts the same ratio as three bantam eggs to two large. So 80 small eggs is nearer 53 large-egg equivalents — not 80 grocery eggs. Plan the basket on that, or do not plan a basket at all.
By year, month, week, and day
| Time period | Low (~50/yr) | Normal (~80/yr) | High (~100/yr) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per year | 50 | 80 | 100 |
| Per month (average) | ~4.2 | ~6.7 | ~8.3 |
| Per week (average) | ~1.0 | ~1.5 | ~1.9 |
| Per day (average) | ~0.14 | ~0.22 | ~0.27 |
| Dozens per year | ~4.2 | ~6.7 | ~8.3 |
A hen lays one egg every 24 to 26 hours at full production and skips days, so the daily average never reaches 1.0. For a Sebright the yearly average is pulled down by what the breed is for — exhibition, not the nest box — and by winter on a bird the Conservancy says does not handle cold and damp well. They almost never sit, so broodiness is not the lever. Counting on one to two small eggs a week per hen across the whole year is a sound planning rule.
The formula
Scale to any flock size:
Weekly eggs = Number of hens × 1.7 × Age Factor × Season Factor
The baseline of 1.7 is a Sebright hen’s weekly output at peak, chosen so the season-weighted year matches Normal rather than overshooting it. Adjust it down with the factors below as the flock ages and the seasons change.
| Factor | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Year 1 (peak) | ×1.00 |
| Year 2 | ×0.84 |
| Year 3 | ×0.66 |
| Year 4 | ×0.50 |
| Year 5 | ×0.38 |
| Spring / Summer | ×1.00 |
| Fall (Sept to Oct) | ×0.90 |
| Winter, no supplemental light | ×0.75 |
| Winter, 16-hr light schedule | ×0.95 |
Example: 6 hens × 1.7 × 0.84 (Year 2) × 0.75 (winter, no light) = ~6 eggs per week.
Why 1.7 reconciles with Normal. Run a constant peak baseline through a Year-1 season mix — about six months at ×1.00, two fall months at ×0.90, and four winter months at ×0.75 with no supplemental light — and you get roughly 46.8 peak-equivalent weeks. 1.7 × 46.8 = 79.56, which rounds to the Normal figure of ~80. A baseline of 2 would imply about 94 for the year, 14 above Normal, and this breed almost never broods, so sitting spells cannot silently absorb the gap. The age and season multipliers above are our standard curve, applied across the site rather than measured on Sebrights specifically. Use the egg production calculator to model your flock by age and season. That calculator’s ornamental-bantam tier of about 110 a year (range 80 to 150) is ours, anchored to Silkie 100, Sebright 80, and the Silkie guide’s ~110 — a Sebright sits on the floor of that range, not at its midpoint; the tier describes the class and matches a Silkie better than a Sebright.
How production drops year over year
Production slides down gradually rather than stopping at a set age. The table applies the age factors to the Normal annual figure of ~80 eggs.
| Year | Per hen / year | Per hen / week | 6-bird flock / year | 6-bird flock / week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 (peak) | ~80 | ~1.5 | ~480 | ~9 |
| Year 2 | ~67 | ~1.3 | ~402 | ~8 |
| Year 3 | ~53 | ~1.0 | ~318 | ~6 |
| Year 4 | ~40 | ~0.8 | ~240 | ~5 |
| Year 5 | ~30 | ~0.6 | ~180 | ~4 |
Peak productive life on this page is two to three years — that is the window the stats block means, not lifespan. No source publishes a flatter numeric decline curve, so we keep the site-wide age multipliers. The Conservancy does not give Sebrights the multi-year persistence gift it gives Hamburgs. A common approach is adding a young pullet or two every other year, so the flock keeps producing while the older birds slow down.
Month by month (first-year hen)
The curve is shaped from the Conservancy breed page, not the chart. That is the document that prints 60–80, and it names a specific failure mode: they do not handle cold and damp well, and do better overall in warm climates. The 2026 chart’s climate cell — “Can handle hot and cold but not extremes” — is a vague cap on both ends; it is named in the climate section below rather than used to flatten winter or to invent a summer trough the breed page does not state. December and January are the floor. They almost never sit, so spring is not carved by broodiness.
| Month | Natural light only | With 16-hr coop lighting | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 4 | 6 | Cold and damp handled poorly; light does not invent a winter layer |
| February | 4 | 6 | Still the low season |
| March | 5 | 7 | Days lengthening |
| April | 6 | 7 | Climb; OSU’s breeding window opens |
| May | 8 | 8 | Toward peak |
| June | 9 | 9 | Peak neighbourhood; warm-climate preference |
| July | 10 | 10 | Peak month; no summer trough on the breed page |
| August | 9 | 9 | Holds |
| September | 8 | 8 | Daylight shortening |
| October | 7 | 8 | Molt and shorter days |
| November | 6 | 7 | Wet-cold risk rising |
| December | 4 | 7 | Minimum without lighting |
The natural-light column sums to the Normal figure of 80; adding a 16-hour schedule takes it to roughly 92. That is a real winter lift, smaller than the swing between an inbred exhibition bird at 50 and Hoover’s 100. If you do add light, start in early September before the days shorten, and aim for 14 to 16 total hours rather than leaving a bulb on overnight.
What changes the number
The single biggest lever on a Sebright annual total is which population you bought — inbred exhibition stock versus a strain that still lays at the Conservancy ceiling — followed by winter on a bird that prefers dry warmth. Broodiness barely registers. Hen-feathering is identity and a male fertility question; it is not an egg-count mechanism and is not used to explain the hen’s year.
Strain — why Low is 50, and why it is not about age
Oklahoma State and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust both print 50 to 80. Fifty is our Low: ornamental, inbred, exhibition-strain stock. Age already has its own table above. The Conservancy’s own floor is 60, so 50 sits slightly below Conservancy but is not invented — two institutions print it. RBST is blunt about why a strain can sit there: two hundred years of inbreeding from a very limited gene pool, fertility that is not good, chicks delicate for the first few weeks, mortality that can be high. Conservancy: some strains are more fertile than others. That is strain, not a second official band.
High 100 is hatchery, and the hatchery undercuts it
Hoover’s Assorted Sebright Bantams is a Sebright-only SKU — Golden and Silver, not the mixed “Assorted Bantams” box that can also contain Silkies, Cochins, and Old English. That Sebright page prints approximately 100 small eggs/year. It is the only figure above 80 anywhere, and it is our High. It is not a second institutional source.
Read the same page. Hoover’s keeps them “primarily for exhibition, enjoyment, and their refined appearance rather than heavy egg production,” and “not known for broodiness.” A Hoover’s Golden Sebright overview that printed the same 100 said they “do not lay well and are not setters” — that variety URL 404s now, so the live Assorted page is the checkable source. Either way, the source of our High does not present 100 as a production claim. It stops 100 reading as a target. McMurray rates Egg Production “good” with no number; Cackle rates Fair with no number; Cackle’s true-bantam guide (Gail Damerow) calls the hens “poor layers of small eggs with white shells.” None of those is a second 100.
No variety split
APA and the Poultry Club of Great Britain both admitted Golden (Gold) and Silver in 1874. The UK Sebright Club recognises those two; RBST notes other lacing colours in some European countries. Conservancy, OSU, RBST, and PCGB publish at breed level. Cackle gives Golden and Silver identical production facts (Fair, cream or tinted, Non Setters, fertility 40–55%). McMurray’s broodiness tiles contradict each other — Golden “not very likely,” Silver “somewhat likely” — on two pages from the same hatchery. Those are not an egg split. Do not invent one — the same call made on Light Sussex, Hamburg, Andalusian, Faverolles, Orpington, and Polish.
Hen-feathering — identity, then male fertility, never the hen’s count
Sebright cocks are hen-feathered: no pointed hackle, saddle, or sickle feathers; colour the same on both sexes. Conservancy, PCGB / sebright.uk, McMurray, and Cackle all describe it. Poultry Extension (Jacquie Jacob, University of Kentucky) explains the mechanism: excess aromatase in feather follicles converts androgen to estrogen, enough to feminise the growing feather. That article does not mention fertility.
Keep the breeding-difficulty levels distinct. They are not one claim.
- Conservancy: some strains are more fertile than others. Institutional, strain, no number.
- RBST: two centuries of inbreeding, poor fertility, delicate chicks, high early mortality. Conservation body.
- Oklahoma State: males need warmth for breeding, ideally April, May, or June. Extension, via the Wayback Machine capture of 5 March 2026 — the live site fails.
- Li et al. 2019 (Mobile DNA, PMC6452514): hen-feathering traced to an intact ALV-like endogenous retrovirus in the CYP19A1 5′UTR. Hf/Hf males show reduced fertility, citing Wilson/George and Somes; heterozygotes produce more offspring, which is why the allele is not fixed in the breed (about 0.80 in a sample of 20). The paper says functional studies are still needed to tell whether ectopic aromatase in testis or the ERV itself is the mechanism. Peer-reviewed. Do not flatten this to “hen-feathering makes them infertile.”
- Cackle: fertility 40–55% on both Golden and Silver. Hatchery, the only percentage anywhere.
- McMurray: too small to sex as day-olds. Handling, not hatchability.
Hen-feathering is why the cock looks like the hen in the show pen. It is a male fertility question in the genetics literature. It does not explain why she laid 80 instead of 200.
Marek’s — Conservancy and Oklahoma State only
The Conservancy says they are susceptible to Marek’s disease and should be vaccinated. Oklahoma State gives that susceptibility as a reason the breed is a poor choice for beginners. Attribute the breed-level warning to those two.
Penn State’s Marek’s page names light egg-type breeds and Silkies in particular. It does not name Sebright. Do not imply extension backing from that bulletin. PoultryDVM lists Silkies, Sebrights, and Polish as “highly susceptible” on a commercial veterinary page with no study attached; if you see that list, that is what it is.
Temperament — leave the field, carry the nuance
Our breed data marks temperament active. That field is a housing tag, not a temperament essay, and we are not changing it. The Conservancy breed page: “Active, spunky, and easily tamed.” They fly into trees, are difficult to catch, and can be very vocal if agitated. The 2026 chart’s temperament cell says Docile; the same row’s notes say they can be delicate. Changing the field to docile would file them next to a Cochin and bury the flight and catch behaviour that decides housing. Nuance belongs in this paragraph.
The 2026 chart rates owner experience Novice–Intermediate. Our breed data marks them not beginner-friendly. Poor laying (Conservancy) and Marek’s (Conservancy and OSU) are why.
Non-broody — plan to incubate
The Conservancy says hens are not broody and do not have good maternal instinct; use a surrogate if you want to hatch. The 2026 chart lists Non-Setters. Cackle: Non Setters. Hoover’s: not known for broodiness. McMurray Golden: not very likely. Practical consequence: incubator or another breed. The upside for egg keepers is that sitting spells almost never remove weeks from the laying year.
Climate — two Conservancy documents, one curve
The breed page: they do not handle cold and damp well, and do better overall in warm climates. The 2026 chart: can handle hot and cold but not extremes. That is a Conservancy internal split, the same class as Faverolles on confinement. McMurray rates heat best and cold better on both varieties — warmer on cold than the breed page. We record climate tolerance as temperate on the breed profile: a compression of the chart’s “not extremes” plus the breed page’s wet-cold warning. The month table follows the breed page. Keep the standard winter factor in the formula; put damp and cold in the month notes. Do not invent a heat crash.
Age at first lay — ours
No Conservancy page, comparison chart, Oklahoma State page, RBST page, or PCGB standard publishes an age at first egg. McMurray Golden lists 19 weeks to maturity; the Silver page has no such field; that is a hatchery maturity rating on one variety, not a first-egg window, and we do not narrow to 19. Our planning window of about 20 to 24 weeks is ours, labelled so you can discount it — the same call made on Blue Andalusian.
Egg colour and size
Eggs are cream and small. Conservancy: Creamy White, Small (Bantam-size) — the same page also says Tiny. 2026 chart: White or creamy, Very Small. PCGB / sebright.uk: white or cream. OSU and RBST: white. McMurray’s colour field is white; a Silver Q&A on that hatchery’s own page says cream or slightly tinted off-white. Cackle: cream or tinted. Hoover’s: cream. We keep cream and small. Chart “Very Small” is more precise; the enum’s floor is small.
Weights — standard ounces, not our rooster field
Standard weights, cited, are 22 oz cock and 20 oz hen (Conservancy breed page, 2026 chart, Oklahoma State, Cackle). The PCGB standard is 620 g (22 oz) cock and 510 g (18 oz) hen — the cock agrees, the hen is 2 oz lighter. Hatcheries commonly quote an unsexed 1.5 lb mature weight (Hoover’s, McMurray). That hatchery rounding is probably what our breed-profile rooster field picked up; it is not the standard, and this page does not treat 1.5 lb as one. Hen 20 oz / 1.25 lb matches the Conservancy, the chart, OSU, and Cackle.
Conservation status
The breed sits at Watch on the Livestock Conservancy’s 2026 Conservation Priority List (poultry PDF). The breed page and the 2026 comparison chart both say Watch as well — the documents agree, unlike Hamburg and Faverolles, where the same year’s CPL and chart disagreed.
History that still shows up in the yard
Sir John Saunders Sebright, 7th Baronet of Besford, Worcestershire, created the breed in the early 1800s and introduced it around 1810 after twenty to thirty years’ work. The exact recipe is unknown; the Conservancy says so. RBST’s reconstruction: Gold first, from a Nankin, a small hen-feathered pit-game cock, and a small hen resembling a gold-spangled Hamburgh; Silver later by crossing prototype Golds with a white Rosecomb cock bought from London Zoo. The Sebright Bantam Club, founded around 1810, is widely described as the first single-breed poultry club (Conservancy, Cackle, Wikipedia’s sourced history). Admitted to the Poultry Club of Great Britain Standard and the APA Standard of Perfection in 1874, Golden and Silver. A true bantam: no large-fowl counterpart. The American Bantam Association, which Skinner A2880 explicitly defers to for bantams, publishes its Bantam Standard only as a paid book and gives no public annual egg figure. The obvious authority for a true bantam has nothing citable on the count.
How Sebrights compare
First-year production under normal backyard conditions. Figures are the ones used across this site’s breed profiles.
| Breed | Annual eggs | Egg color | Type | Vs Sebright |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sebright | 80 | Cream, small | True bantam ornamental | Baseline |
| Silkie | 100 | Cream, small | Bantam, broody | Higher |
| Polish (White Crested) | 150 | White, medium | Light ornamental layer | Higher |
| Cochin | 160 | Brown, medium | Heavy heritage | Higher |
| Andalusian (Blue) | 165 | White, large | Light Mediterranean | Higher |
| Hamburg | 200 | White, medium | Light heritage layer | Higher |
| Buff Orpington | 220 | Brown, large | Heritage | Higher |
Every comparator reads Higher because 80 is the lowest annual figure on this site. There is no honest below-80 row in our breed data. The Polish guide’s comparison table already lists Sebright at 80, cream, small — that row still agrees.
The honest verdict: a Sebright is an exhibition true bantam at about 80 small cream eggs a year — below a Silkie, well below a Polish or a Hamburg, and not a bird you keep for the basket. Eighty small eggs is nearer 53 large-egg equivalents. What she adds is laced plumage, hen-feathered cocks, a Watch conservation status, and a non-sitting year that still does not add up to a layer. She is not a beginner egg bird, not a mother hen, and not a wet-cold specialist. For eggs, look at a Leghorn or a hybrid. For a keeper who wants a show bantam and will vaccinate for Marek’s, house them so they cannot vanish into a tree, and incubate if they want chicks, she earns her keep.
Use the breed selector quiz to compare breeds against your goals and setup. Sebright is not among the quiz’s scored breeds; use the breed profile and this guide directly.
Frequently asked questions
How many eggs does a Sebright lay per year?
About 80 small cream eggs. That is our Normal and the ceiling of every closed institutional band (Conservancy 60–80, Oklahoma State 50–80, RBST 50–80). The 2026 comparison chart says Poor, with no number. Hoover’s prints 100 and still frames the breed as ornamental rather than a production layer. No extension or conservation document promises more than 80.
How many eggs does a Sebright lay per week?
One to two small eggs a week at peak on the stats card. Formula peak is 1.7; averaged across a full year, plan on about 1.5. That is not a Silkie’s 2–3.
When do Sebrights start laying eggs?
No institutional source publishes a first-egg age. McMurray Golden lists 19 weeks to maturity; we do not use that as the window. Our planning figure of about 20 to 24 weeks is ours, not measured on this breed.
Do Sebrights go broody?
Almost never. The Conservancy says they are not broody and lack maternal instinct; the 2026 chart lists Non-Setters; Cackle and Hoover’s agree. Plan on an incubator or another breed if you want chicks.
How many eggs will 6 Sebright hens lay per year?
Roughly 480 small eggs in a typical first year, with a realistic spread of about 300 to 600 depending on strain and winter. In large-egg terms that is nearer 200 to 400 grocery equivalents. Run your own numbers with the egg production calculator, remembering that calculator’s 110 ornamental-bantam midpoint is a class figure, not this breed’s Normal.
Do Sebrights lay eggs in winter?
Not as a cold-weather layer. The Conservancy breed page says they do not handle cold and damp well and do better in warm climates. December and January are the two lowest months on this page (4 eggs). The 2026 chart’s “hot and cold but not extremes” is a different Conservancy document; it does not turn this into a winter layer. A dry coop is the practical reading, not a custom winter multiplier.
What color and size are Sebright eggs?
Cream and small — bantam-size, about two-thirds of a large-fowl egg. Conservancy: creamy white. Chart: white or creamy, very small. Some hatcheries say white; McMurray’s own Silver Q&A calls them cream or tinted off-white.
Are Golden and Silver different layers?
No source publishes an egg-production split. Cackle’s production facts are identical. McMurray’s broodiness tiles disagree with each other and are not an egg count.
Are Sebrights good for beginners?
Usually not if the goal is eggs. The Conservancy calls them challenging for a beginner due to poor laying, and Oklahoma State adds Marek’s susceptibility. Our breed data marks them not beginner-friendly. Fine for a keeper who wants an exhibition bantam, will vaccinate, and is not counting on the nest box.
Why do Sebright roosters look like hens?
Hen-feathering: a documented aromatase mutation (Poultry Extension; Li et al. 2019). It is the show-ring identity of the breed and a male fertility question. It does not set the hen’s annual egg count.
Sources
The Livestock Conservancy is the primary institutional source for Sebright egg figures, and it publishes two documents that do not agree on climate or temperament — both are cited below rather than collapsed into one. The 2026 CPL agrees with both on Watch, unlike Hamburg and Faverolles. Cooperative extension and the UW bantam material sit next. UK sources sit inside the same 50–80 band. Hatchery pages are ranked below those and labelled as commercial guidance. The hen-feathering genetics are scientific, not extension egg counts. Each source is named for the specific claim it supports.
- 60–80, non-broody, weights, ornamental use, beginner warning, Marek’s, climate, temperament, history, APA/PCGB 1874, Watch — breed page: The Livestock Conservancy — Sebright Chicken. Source of “about 60-80 small (bantam-size small) eggs per year,” hens are not broody and lack maternal instinct, 22 oz males / 20 oz hens, “Challenging for a beginner due to poor laying,” susceptible to Marek’s and should be vaccinated, do not handle cold and damp well and do better in warm climates, “Active, spunky, and easily tamed,” some strains more fertile than others, true bantam, Gold Laced and Silver Laced, admitted 1874, Watch, and the unknown recipe after twenty to thirty years’ work by Sir John Saunders Sebright, introduced around 1810.
- Poor (no number), White or creamy, Very Small, Non-Setters, Docile cell, climate, Novice–Intermediate, Watch — comparison chart: The Livestock Conservancy — Heritage Chicken Breed Comparison Chart (2026). Rates Sebright Rate of Lay Poor with no integer, Egg Color White or creamy, Egg Size Very Small, Brooding Non-Setters, temperament Docile, Owner Experience Novice–Intermediate, CPL Status Watch, Purpose Eggs, Show, climate “Can handle hot and cold but not extremes,” weights M 22 oz / F 20 oz. Notes: primarily an exhibition fowl; small space; can be delicate. This is the document that refuses a numeric High; it disagrees with the breed page on climate (extremes vs wet-cold) and temperament (Docile vs Active, spunky).
- Conservation Priority List — current status: The Livestock Conservancy — 2026 Conservation Priority Poultry Breeds (PDF). Lists Sebright (W). Agrees with the breed page and the 2026 chart.
- Extension and academic coverage: UW–Madison Extension — Chicken Breeds and Varieties (A2880), John L. Skinner (also circulated as a PDF) covers bantams as a class, defers to the American Bantam Association Bantam Standard, and gives no Sebright annual count. UW–Madison Extension — Bantams (John L. Skinner) lists Sebrights Golden and Silver with hen-feathered males; bantam eggs about two-thirds large-fowl size, often 15 to 20 ounces per dozen; no annual count. Oklahoma State University — Sebright Chickens (live site fails; full HTML recovered via the Wayback Machine capture of 5 March 2026) gives 50 to 80 small white eggs a year, poor brooding instincts, poor choice for beginners due to Marek’s, 22 / 20 oz, APA 1874 Golden and Silver, and males needing warmth for breeding in April, May, or June. Penn State Extension — Small-Scale Egg Production states bantam chickens are not suited for small-scale egg production due to egg size — class, not Sebright-specific, and no annual count. Penn State Extension — Marek’s Disease in Chickens names light egg-type breeds and Silkies in particular; it does not name Sebright. University of Maine Cooperative Extension — Bulletin #2104 : three bantam eggs equal two large; true-bantam examples named do not include Sebright; no annual count. University of Arkansas Extension — FSA8012, Poultry Breeds for the Small Farm: bantams about one-fourth standard size and can produce a good number of small eggs; Silkie named as true bantam; no Sebright, no annual count.
- UK institutional — inside the same band, and the standard: Rare Breeds Survival Trust — Sebright gives 50–80 small white eggs per year depending on strain, not kept for egg laying, hen-feathered males, Gold then Silver history, two centuries of inbreeding, poor fertility, delicate chicks. Poultry Club of Great Britain — Sebright : true bantam, gold and silver, a part in producing other laced fowl notably Wyandottes; no annual count. Sebright UK — Breed Standard (PCGB text): egg colour white or cream; hen-feathered males; 620 g / 510 g; two colours gold and silver.
- Hatchery and commercial guidance — not research: Murray McMurray Hatchery — Golden Sebright Bantam and Silver Sebright Bantam: hen-feathered, Egg Color white, Egg Production “good,” heat best / cold better, unsexed 1.5 lb, Watch; Golden broodiness not very likely and 19 weeks to maturity; Silver broodiness somewhat likely and a Q&A that Silver Sebrights lay a cream or slightly tinted off-white egg; too small to sex as day-olds. Cackle Hatchery — Golden Sebright Bantam and Silver Sebright Bantam: Fair production, cream or tinted, Non Setters, fertility 40–55%, 22 / 20 oz, APA 1874, Watch. Cackle Hatchery — True Bantam Chicken Breeds (Gail Damerow): poor layers of small white-shell eggs, seldom brood, low fertility, delicate chicks. Hoover’s Hatchery — Assorted Sebright Bantams: approximately 100 small cream eggs/year — our High — on a Sebright-only SKU that still says they are kept for exhibition rather than heavy egg production and are not known for broodiness. Distinct from Hoover’s Assorted Bantams, a mixed box that can include Silkies, Cochins, and Old English, whose 100 is not a Sebright figure.
- Hen-feathering — genetics and extension anatomy, not egg counts: Li et al., 2019 — Characterization of the endogenous retrovirus insertion in CYP19A1 associated with henny feathering in chicken (Mobile DNA). Intact ALV-like ERV in the CYP19A1 5′UTR; Hf not fixed (~0.80 in n=20 Sebrights); reduced fertility of Hf/Hf males citing Wilson/George and Somes; heterozygotes produce more offspring; functional studies still needed. Poultry Extension — Causes of Hen-Feathering in Male Chickens (Jacquie Jacob, University of Kentucky): aromatase in feather follicles; Sebright and Campine named; no fertility claim on that page.
- Commercial veterinary list, not a study: PoultryDVM — Marek’s Disease lists Silkies, Sebrights, and Polish as highly susceptible on a commercial veterinary page with no study attached to that list.
- Not available for this breed (named so they are not silently omitted): PoultryKeeper’s Sebright pages are JS-gated; no page body was recovered, so nothing is cited from them, even though PoultryKeeper is cited on other guides in this series. The American Bantam Association Bantam Standard is a paid book with no public annual figure — Skinner A2880 defers to it, and it still cannot be cited for a count. Oklahoma State’s live site fails (Wayback capture used). Dias et al. 2025 (Veterinary Record Case Reports, doi:10.1002/vrc2.70242) is not cited: the DOI redirects to Wiley, Wiley and the OA PDF both return a Cloudflare challenge, and Europe PMC has no record. Meyer Hatchery, Lafeber, and Mile Four have no Sebright breed page.
- Ours, not published: the Low / High anchoring choices, the month-by-month split, the age and season multipliers, and the ~20–24 week first-lay planning window. The Low of 50 is Oklahoma State and RBST, defined as ornamental / inbred / exhibition-strain stock — not age decline, which the year-over-year table already models. The Normal of 80 is the Conservancy 60–80 ceiling, matching our breed data; it is not a middle. The High of 100 is Hoover’s Assorted Sebright, a hatchery figure above every institutional print, and Hoover’s own page still frames the breed as ornamental rather than a production layer. The multipliers are our standard site-wide curve. First lay is labelled ours because no institutional source publishes an age at first egg for this breed.
Two classes of source were checked and deliberately not used: aggregator and content-farm breed pages that restate Conservancy or hatchery ranges without primary data, and Hoover’s mixed Assorted Bantams SKU, whose 100 is not Sebright-specific. For health concerns about your flock, consult a licensed poultry veterinarian.
Last reviewed August 2026.