No doubt. Chickens are yummiest when they’re young, so it’s to the farmer’s advantage to weed out the poor layers early. If one chicken only produces half the eggs of another chicken for the same amount of feed, that poor performer is slated to become a “young broiler/fryer”. The good layer gets to grow old, breed, and eventually become a “stew chicken” when she’s old and tough. So, by weeding out the poor performers, farmers will 1) save the money it would cost to feed an inefficient chicken, and 2) send a desirable young chicken to market. With the top performers as the only ones left to reproduce, the next generation gets a little more efficient at laying.