When we meet someone, we sometimes make a comment about that person after they have gone. Maybe you have said something like "Oh, he was a bit of a character"! Or perhaps "She has got a lot of get up and go"!
Yes, we are all individuals but ideally have to become partially moulded to fit into our society. However, some people still stand out as being ’different’ and may be non-conformists. Are hens any different? No, we try to make their behaviour conform to our wishes but there are always some who are resistant to that.
Now that many hens are in free range flocks, it is easier to see just how variable the behaviour of some hens is. Some of them are indeed ’a bit of a character’ too! The most extreme example of this that I have come across was when I was talking to a farmer one day in his Portakabin office. There was a tapping at the door and the farmer asked me to open the door so that a hen that had been ’knocking at the door’ could come in. I did what I was told and watched the hen contentedly crossing the office to the far corner and settling down onto an overall that was lying there. A few moments later there were some little straining noises and out popped a lovely brown egg. The hen then got up rearranged her feathers and crossed back to the door, waiting patiently to be let out so that she could then fly back over the fencing and join her colleagues on the range area. What, I hear you say; didn’t she think that it would have been easier to have laid in the nest boxes? No, she was ’a bit of a character’ and had a mind of her own. Like humans, there are some hens who despite our best efforts, don’t conform.
The success of free range egg production can be marred by these non-conformist hens. Nest clean eggs are essential. I think that it is inevitable that within a flock, there are some hens that deliberately make an initial decision that they won’t use the nest boxes. So we have to make sure that the hens’ behaviour is moulded to our wishes rather than to theirs.
To begin with when they are coming into lay we do expect a proportion of the eggs to be laid at random on the floor. These hens can be encouraged to use the nests but some of them may determinedly choose to lay on the floor. That is bad news and when the hens are coming into lay, there is no substitute to ensuring that someone is within the house doing all that is possible to get the hens to use the nest boxes. It is possible to help in training the hens to use the nests because their behaviour can be imprinted. Like us, their behaviour is partially allied to their genetic make up but their environment can markedly influence it.
It is usual for there to be say at least 10% of floor eggs in the very early stages of the laying period but by peak production, this should have fallen back to say about 1%. If you get less than 1% thereafter, you are doing well. Many flocks do achieve that aim.
So in trying to avoid floor eggs, what are the points that we have to consider here? Unfortunately, the answer is not simple. In my view, the problem of floor eggs is a true multi-factorial one. Yes, I know that consultants tend to hide behind the word ’multi-factorial’ when they are not sure of the answer. However in this case, a floor egg problem is indeed likely to be due to a ’little bit of this, plus a little bit of that’! I think that the component parts of a floor egg problem are a) genetics; b) their training during the rearing period; c) imprinting their behaviour by correct management on the laying farm; d) the layout and design of the equipment in the laying house; e) luck.
GENETICS / THE BREED
I would not want to be a geneticist! There are so many heritable traits that geneticists have to incorporate into the strains. It is such a long-term thing too. As far as floor eggs are concerned, adventurous and active hens are the most likely to find the nests. However these hens may be more inclined to show aggressive behaviour and possibly may be more prone to feather pecking. Knowing this is a risk, the geneticist then has to try and incorporate ’peaceable genes’ that could have the effect of making their behaviour lazier. It is possible that some of these more ’laid back’ hens may not bother to look for the nests but join a gang that have decided that the corner on the litter area is where they should be laying. This is a difficult balance for the geneticist to achieve.
There are some who claim that a commercially available strain of hens has become lazy and now are less inclined to use the nest boxes. However there are many flocks of this breed where their behaviour is impeccable and the farmers are achieving less than 1% of eggs that are laid in the wrong place. I think that it is too simplistic to blame the breed and where people do this, my reaction would be to say "Yes but did you check on them when they were being reared"? "Were you there in the laying house for most of the morning when they were coming into lay"? "How far have they to walk to the nests and what equipment is making it difficult for them to get there"? Yes, there are lots of pertinent questions to ask, so don’t just blame the geneticists. They do seem to have got many things right. However it is no bad thing to keep them on their toes by informing them if you do have a floor egg problem and compare notes with other egg producers using the same breed.
THE REARING FARM
You must be sick of being told that as far as is practicable, the rearing house should have equipment that is compatible with what the pullets will be using during the laying period – but it should. The pullets should ideally experience walking and perching on slats. If there are not slats, then perches would be an essential addition to rearing houses. You see, not only should feeders and especially drinkers be similar but also the pullets must have had experience in using raised perches or slats. If they have learnt that the flat littered area is a comfortable place to sleep, they are more likely to want to do so during the laying period too. They then may think ’Well I sleep here, so why not lay here in comfort too?’ It seems to be becoming clear that the same principles are important for hens in multi-tiered houses too. Despite the risks of eggs being laid on the floor or slats in multi-tiered houses, there are examples that show that a floor egg problem can be avoided.
So the important point to make is that it is all about training, acclimatizing and imprinting the behaviour of the pullets. The dictionary definition of imprinting is; ’impress an idea on or in mind or memory’ and ’become recognised as an object of attachment (especially young animals)’. So undoubtedly the training period for pullets starts before you receive them on the laying farm. Ensure that you liaise closely with those who rear your pullets. What they do can undoubtedly affect the number of floor eggs that you get.
THE LAYING FARM
Imprinting the behaviour of the pullets does not end when they reach the laying farm. By your management you must help to train the pullets. Some tips for you:
• The pullets should be allowed to explore the nest boxes as soon as practicable after their delivery to the laying farm. Therefore get the pullets used to the nests opening before the house lights come on, but be there yourself until they are used to this in case it frightens them. Having been open all day, get them used to the nests being shut before the house lights go out.
• Ensure that, where fitted, the lights in the nest boxes are on and the boxes are open before the house lights come on. In my view, it is desirable to reduce the intensity of the lights in the boxes for the remaining laying life, after the hens are successfully using the nest boxes. (The risks of cannibalism are greater if you don’t). There are some pullets in the very early stages of the laying period that don’t make it to the nest boxes before the house lights come on, so they lay at random on the slats. Where this is a big problem, give them a jump in their daylength of at least an hour (preferably say an hour and a half) in the evening, not in the morning. Making them go to bed later will make them lay later in the day. When you go into the house first thing in the morning, you should notice an improvement in having less eggs lying randomly on the floor by about three days from altering the clock.
• Where you see floor eggs, it is imperative that they are picked up as frequently as possible i.e. many times each morning during the early stages of the laying period. Eggs on the floor attract other hens to do the same thing.
• Ensure that the distance to walk to the nests is not too great. In practice, it seems that where houses are about 60 feet wide, hens are willing to walk from the litter area to centrally placed nests. Feeders and drinkers must not impede their passage to the nests. Installing chain feeders that are low but not actually touching the slats (too many red mites if they are resting on the slats) seems to be optimal. Nipple drinker lines should not be a barrier so long as the hens can walk beneath them. They should not be a problem so long as the hens’ necks are reaching diagonally up to the nipples when drinking.
• Hens like to walk along adjacent to the nests whilst making the decision about which one seems to be the most attractive to lay in.
• There must be no draughts in the nests, especially ones up through the floor. They ’don’t like it up ’em’! Remember that the basic instinct of hens is to perceive nest boxes as the place where they would want to settle down and hatch out their eggs. For humans, a rollaway nest box has become virtually essential in free range egg production. However for the hens, it is quite possible that they perceive rollaway nests as not being ideal and decide that the litter on the floor is a more attractive place to lay than in the nest boxes. So it is prudent not to put too much litter on the floor early in the laying period. It must not be more comfortable than the nest boxes.
• The house lights should not shine directly into the nests. However it is a good idea for the light intensity on the litter area to be high, as this makes it less desirable for the hens to lay their eggs on it. A single strand of electric fencing around the floor litter area can be a deterrent. Where it becomes necessary, it ought to be possible for it to be switched off later in the laying period. What ever you do though, don’t let them get a shock when using the popholes.
• When you are walking amongst the hens during the mornings, it may be helpful to pick up hens that are laying in the wrong place and put them into the nest boxes. Often they just pop out again, but a proportion of the hens may get the idea that those nests are not such a bad idea after all!
• Ensure that the hens all roost at night time on the slatted area
With the price of Second Quality eggs being so far below the costs of production, it is essential that most hens lay in the nest boxes. When this doesn’t happen, it is just so frustrating for the egg producer! If the problem has not been rectified by the time when the hens are at about peak production, it is likely that they will misbehave for the remainder of their time on the farm. This imprinting instinct is so strong that by then it is virtually impossible to modify the behaviour of persistent floor egg layers.
I hope that you haven’t a floor egg problem. If you have, I feel sorry for you. Remember that the problem is highly likely to be associated with interlinked factors. You, as the egg producer are just part of that link. As a first step, analyse critically what you did on the laying farm before you try to pin the blame elsewhere, i.e. with the geneticists or the rearing farm. As I have said, it just needs one of those interlinked factors to be ’ below par’ to create a floor egg problem. When the geneticists, rearers and laying farm management are all ’spot on’, you should be able to breathe a happy sigh of relief as you watch clean eggs from the nests boxes being packed in your egg store.
