BONUS SPRING SUMMER 2025

hours that increase day length – in this way, a shorter day is crucial for birds during rearing. On preparation to lay, at about 16 weeks, light exposure for pullets must gradually increase to roughly 14 hours of light each day. The flock should be encouraged to enter the lay by this period. Selection of birds for laying sheds At about 16 and 17 weeks of age, birds are selected for transfer to the laying shed. Body weight and frame size are the main points of selection criteria. Birds of large skeletal structure indicate good sexual maturity and the ability to lay eggs. When choosing which birds to transfer to a laying house, flock uniformity is a key factor. By weighing birds at specific intervals, uniformity must be monitored and regulated in this manner, where low-weight birds are not selected. A small number of birds rejected during selection results from good bodyweight and body frame monitoring, which also provides information about the timing, size, and peak of egg production. Egg size uniformity is negatively impacted by choosing birds with a wide range of sizes. The point of lay bird supplier must deliver birds with an average weight that has a maximum CV of 10%. The higher the expectation for performance in terms of egg size, the lower the CV %. Flock healthmonitoring While managing the flock by moving around, you may keep the birds busy and look more closely at individual birds to check for symptoms of illness and other anomalies. Healthy feces will be firm, grey, or brown, with white pee deposits, but no visible feed remnants that haven’t been Impact of laying hen stressors Laying hens are very sensitive to stress, and in reaction to stress, reduced egg production and general performance will become apparent. Stressors include, but are not limited to, changes in housing environment, weather, feed, housing, water source, stocking density, and disease prevalence. Feed restriction causes physiological stress in chickens, especially in the early stages of life where rapid growth and development occur. Both quantitative (amount) and qualitative (inclusion) feed restrictions will be detrimental to a laying hen’s performance. Feeding the wrong feed, diluting feed with scratch grains, or limiting the amount of feed available can result in your hens having a nutritional deficiency, causing them to moult and go out of production. When hens have a nutritional deficiency, it is common to see feather pecking as well as a loss of egg production. The hens will not eat if they cannot drink water, so make sure that your watering system is functioning correctly. Keeping a watering system operational can be a challenge in the winter when the water may freeze. The prevalence of diseases is a common problem for laying hens, and sick birds are unlikely to thrive as well as those that have not experienced any sickness challenges. Always screen your birds for local common poultry diseases using sentinels or serology samples from a small number of representatives. A local veterinarian may give vaccination schedules for farmers to follow in terms of disease prevention. It is usually advised to fully apply biosecurity measures to make sure that all farm procedures safeguard the welfare of the animals from external as well as internal factors. The main environmental stressors that are temperature-related are heat stress and the amount of space available. The apparent signs of a bird experiencing heat stress include panting, decreased activity, poor feed intake, and an increase in mortality in situations when laying hens are exposed to severe heat You must keep a schedule of at least 14 hours of light every day for a flock to lay throughout the year. Late in the egg-producing cycle, you can gradually increase the quantity of light to 16 hours each day to help the flock continue to produce eggs. For laying flock, a 60-watt light bulb works just as well. Premature mature layers are less than ideal in all areas of body development, and as a result, the impact on the birds will include, among other things, malformed eggs, cracked eggs, rectal prolapse, and restlessness. digested. Vaccination of the flock against common diseases is crucial, together with the implementation of good biosecurity standards. Spring/Summer 2025 BONUS www.agribonus.co.za 16