3 Ways how to promote high egg production

Every poultry farmer strives to achieve a high egg production rate in their flocks. High egg yield means good returns in the market place and a financially viable poultry farm.

Egg production is usually determined or expressed as egg production rate. Your flock supplier can give you your flock’s expected egg production rate. You can use this as a benchmark to determine the performance of your flock.

Egg yield rate is the percentage of layers birds that produce eggs in a flock on a daily basis. You can use Kukufarm app or other poultry farming apps to track your flocks egg production rate.

How to promote egg production

Feed quality

Feed quality is fundamental to achieving a high egg production in a flock, whether it is layers or dual purpose flock. High quality feed meets a flocks nutritional needs, ensure birds health, and ultimately helps a flock achieve high egg production.

You can obtain a flock feeding schedule from your flock supplier. A flock feeding schedule details the feed type, and amount per bird, per day, that should be fed to a flock, for optimal health and high productivity.

There are no shortcuts when it comes to feeding a poultry flock, especially for poultry farmers. Low quality or insufficient feed will mean poor flock health, low egg yield and may even result to disease and death in a flock.

Access to clean water is also essential part of feed quality for your flocks.

Coop conditions

Hygiene is a key factor in raising healthy birds with a high egg production rate. Suitable coop conditions means that a coop is free of pests and parasites, birds have room for movement and so on.

Unsuitable coop conditions, including crowding can result in disease and the spread of disease in a flock. Some poultry diseases such as infectious bronchitis, Newcastle disease, and tremorvirus result in a drop of egg production.

To ensure that coop conditions are suitable for your flock, implement the poultry farming practices as directed by your flock supplier and certified poultry vet. Essentially, you want to ensure that your birds are healthy, feel safe, and are at their potential for their expected egg yield.

Chicken, just like other animal are susceptible to stress. Temperature extremes, lack of proper air circulation, and poor lighting in a coop, for instance, can stress birds in a flock resulting to a drop in egg productivity.

Biosecurity is one of the foundations for a productive flock. Without it, you can end up losing an entire flock to culling orders or farm closure.

Breed

Poultry egg productivity is determined by a number of factors, fundamentally poultry breed.

Some chicken breeds especially hybrid layers can have a high egg yeild in the 90 percentages. In contrast, dual purpose and heritage breeds may have a lower egg production rates. A dual purpose breed such as the kienyeji popular in Kenya, has a fluctuating egg production rate that can range from 30 – 90 percent in suitable conditions.

Most, if not all chicken breeds have an expected egg yield rate. If you are a commercial poultry farmer, this is information you should be able to obtain from your flock supplier.

Egg production key takeaways

• Know the expected egg yield rate of your breed of choice
• Information on a breed’s egg productivity can be obtained from respective flock supplier. This should serves as a benchmark to track your flock’s performance
• Irrespective of the chicken breed you rear, you want to ensure that your farming practices are most suited to that breed. This way, your flock can have an above average egg yield rate.
• Hybrid poultry breeds have a high egg productivity, than their dual purpose