Hatching eggs need to be kept clean and be cooled promptly after they are laid. Eggs deposited on the floor, rather than the nest boxes, will not achieve either of these objectives. As a result, they tend to hatch less well, and the chicks that are produced do not live well. When a high proportion of each days eggs are laid on the floor, the labour requirement on the farm will increase so adding to costs, the eggs are usually contaminated so may be rejected as hatching eggs, they will probably infect clean eggs in the hatchery, will have a reduced hatchability, poorer chick quality and increased first week mortality. Well-managed flocks tend to have both good egg production and low levels of floor eggs, because the requirements are very similar.
The numbers of eggs laid on the floor varies quite widely, depending on a number of factors. It is reasonable to aim for a target of below 2% of each days eggs being laid on the floor – in fact anything under 4% is probably manageable. Anything higher can cause real problems, and action will need to be taken quickly.
There are three challenges to be met in achieving low levels of floor laying. These are:
- Encourage the hen to go into the nest
- Keep hen there until her egg is laid
- Avoid attractive, alternative nesting sites.
Encourage the hens to visit the nests:
Allow enough nesting space:
- With automated nest boxes, early advice was to allow 110 - 120 hens /autonest unit. Experience has shown that this is insufficient, and that 90 – 95 hens per nest unit are a more realistic number.
- The greatest pressure on the nest boxes will be when the flock is at peak, because more birds will be looking for nest space simultaneously, and at this time it is not uncommon to see birds queuing to use the nests.
Avoid obstructions to the nest:
- Keep feeders as low as possible so that birds feeding do not block other hens’ access to the nests.
- Hens using drinkers on the slats in front of the nests can also restrict access so make sure there are enough drinkers and that the water flow rate is sufficient to allow the birds to finish drinking quickly and move on.
- Eggs are often laid next to or under the feeders because the hen had to wait to get access to the feed.
- Make sure there is sufficient space and that feed distribution is fast enough so that hens can find and consume food quickly, avoiding any delay to the hens visiting the nest.
Make sure that the hens can get up onto the slats:
- Train the birds to jump up by providing perch rails during the rearing period.
- Keep the height of the slats below 50cm
Mating ratios:
- Too many males will prevent females reaching the nests.
Stocking densities:
- Too many birds put pressure on the nests and feeder space and can form a physical barrier to bird movement.
Keeping the hen in the nest
- Avoid feeding birds during peak laying period. The time allowed between lights on and feeding time is important: either distributes feed immediately after the lights come on (within 60 minutes) or wait 6 hours. Hens will adjust to either provided that there are no sudden changes. Feeding within the period 1-6 hours after lights on will force the hen to choose between laying an egg in the nest, or visiting the feeder and dropping her egg under the feeder.
- Good environmental control is important - too much air movement can cause uncomfortable cold draughts and the hens will avoid laying in such places
- Poor ventilation can reduce air quality with high humidity or ammonia and encourage floor eggs.
Avoiding attractive alternative nest sites
- Ideally, feeder lines should be winched up to 30 cm after feeding. Feeders set too low create safe nest sites.
- Avoid creating safe areas for nest sites by poor layout of feed bins, ramps and dark corners due to inappropriately positioned lighting.
- Litter must be dry and no more that 4cm in depth. If the birds stay in the same house from day old to death, surplus litter may need to be removed just before the hens are mated up.
- Hens will lay next to other floor eggs. To avoid this happening, collect floor eggs as often as possible. Field experience shows that flocks with the lowest levels of floor eggs expect to sustain floor egg collection 10 -12 times daily up to 32 weeks. If necessary, employ someone in the critical 22 - 32 week period.
Many of the points above constitute normal good management practise and should be part of any flock management aimed at optimising egg output.
