NEST MANAGEMENT

Points clés de l’utilisation des nids dans les systèmes sans cage:

• • Right position of the nest boxes with drinking lines in front of them
  • Use clean, automatic closing nest boxes with comfortable floor/mat.
  • Nest boxes in the best right intensity of light (enough to find the nest, and inside dark enough to keep birds quiet).
  • Enough nest space (refer to page 28)
  • Breeders should not be allowed to have access to the nests too early. Open the nest boxes 1–2 weeks before the onset of lay. Open them 3–4 hours before start of day-lighting program and close 1 hour before the end of the lighting program (NEVER leave them open overnight)
  • In an aviary system with on tier/level of nest boxes the birds need some more time to find the nests than a traditional floor house with slats or combi system where you have nest boxes on every level.
  • System with on-line nest boxes can be equipped with incorporate barriers. Best way to use them every 2 meters at 6 meters from every compartment wall. This to prevent high density in these front and back nests.
  • In case, of early production eggs you can also use very low light intensity lights inside the nests. This light can start 1–2 hours before the start of lighting program to give the birds that produce early to find the way to the nest boxes. These 1–2 hours are not included in the daylength.
  • Always try to use more than standard nest space in cage-free systems to catch all the birds/eggs during the laying process. Especially at the onset of production of very uniform PS flocks.
  • After the production peak and > 30 weeks, we can start gradually closing the nest boxes a bit earlier every 1–2 weeks. In the afternoon, the birds don’t need access to the nest boxes. This is especially important if you start to see a lot of dirty nests (bedding or mat) and eggs due to nest material. In the afternoon, the birds don’t need access to the nest boxes (after the production period – 10 hours after lights on.
  • Close the nest in very small steps, and keep an eye on total number of eggs, and number of floor/system eggs. When these numbers stay same level, you can make the next step.
  • For a correct nest management, always keep in mind the difference in the laying behavior between white and brown strains:
    a) Browns tends to start the production earlier than whites, so the egg collection must start earlier.
    b) In white flocks, at peak production hour a higher % of females are laying, plus the hens stay longer inside the nest than browns, therefore nest space is more critical for the white breeders than Brown Nick breeders.

The management in the rearing period is critical to success in the training for nest use:

• • • Use of perches, water tables, etc.
    • Lighting management.

The first 8 to 10 weeks post-hatch are critical to imprint the desirable behavior in our birds. Therefore, the importance of optimizing the rearing periods, particularly for birds going into cage free housing systems is extremely important. Environments with simple rearing systems are not cognitively stimulating or spatially complex enough to adapt pullets to navigate in aviary or even on floor system.
If we don’t provide perches or stimulate the pullets to jump on platforms in the rearing house, the chances to have a non-desirable % of floor eggs could be high.

MALES MANAGEMENT

Rearing

Males and females should be reared together from the first day if they are going to be under natural mating conditions in production. Males from white breeders without comb treatment need to be separate until 7
to 8 weeks of age to select the sexing errors. Do not dub brown males unless you have problems with feeders/grills in rearing or production.

Don’t beak treat males (if you think you should beak treat them, ask H&N Technical service for advice). When is possible, males should be comb treated to avoid problems with feeder lines grills. This is a must when they will be housed in cages.

Males should be healthy and develop according to the standards as a predisposition for good mating behavior and good sperm quality. To achieve this, is important to follow the recommended stocking density, feeder and drinker spaces. Check weekly male’s body weight (always at standard) and uniformity (> 85 %). There are two critical periods when the body weight gain is extremely important and must meet the standard, the first is between 2 and 10 weeks of age, when the reproductive organs are developing and then, after light stimulation where is a fast growth of the testis. At 10 weeks of age and before transfer (light stimulation) from rearing to the laying house a selection of the males should be made to only keep males in good conditions.

Males with low body condition, leg problems, skeletal defects or bad feather cover will be sorted out. Furthermore sharp, hooked, short or uneven beaks should be selected since they can damage the females at mating. All time, the stage of development should match to the development of the females based on comb, wattle and feather as indicators: If their dominancy develops too early, the males are getting active before a sufficient number of females is sexually mature, and as a result the males start chasing females, over-mating occurs, males start fighting each other, females are getting damaged
and scared and as a final result, fertility is too low.

If their dominancy develops too late, the males will not become dominant over the females and will be scared to mate with them. The males can be physically well developed but will not mate because they think they are not able to do so and as a result, again fertility is too low.

Production

Males in natural mating should develop dominance over the females otherwise they will not mate. Therefore, is important to keep an eye on the condition of the males during the laying period and check weekly the
body weight development of the flock until week 30 and then biweekly.

Monitor carefully and permanently the sexual behavior of the flock and a good and even distribution of the males (especially important in the afternoon, during the mating period). An effort should be done to keep a good feather cover, otherwise females with naked backs will avoid males. Depending on environmental condition the mating ratio ranges between 8 and 10 males per 100 females. In controlled environment, usually 8–9 % are optimal. In open or slatted floors and hot climate 9–10 % are recommended. Not always more is better, more males than needed causes disturbance in the flock resulting in reduced fertility.
It is a good practice to start at 20 weeks with 9–10 % males in natural mating and 7 % in artificial insemination and proceed to select males with poor condition during production to achieve 8–9 % and 6 % respectively of good quality males at 25–28 weeks of age and during production (for male/female ratio in family cages please ask H&N Technical Service).

Vent colour is a good indicator of the male’s mating behavior, in an active male should be strong red and not pale and the variability of vent colour between males should be small. Males with pale vents and underweighted should be sorted out. In family cages, is critical to keep an eye on the males quality and behavior, because the decline in fertility could be faster than in floor systems. Every 2 weeks do fertility checks ad when necessary apply intra-spiking or spiking. Always keep a group of extra males in a pen (better if they are younger than the flock; more details in the male’s management Technical Tips.

Fertility

If fertility problems appear in a flock check:

• • • If fertility problems appear in a flock check:
      • Bad physical conditions of the males and
        females (overweight or underweight).
      • Disease.
      • Nutritional deficiencies.
      • Sexual behavior of males and females.

ONSET OF LAY

Monitoring production data is essential for timely intention in response to any issues that occur in the weeks between the first eggs and the production peak. Production data should be monitored daily or at least weekly.

% LAY
This should increase daily. During the first week, the increase may be small, but a bigger increase should be seen every day. In the middle part of onset of lay, the increase should be stronger, at least 2% per day and ideally close to 3%. Finally, in the last week, the increase should be close to 1% until the production peak is reached. The rate of increase cannot be monitored correctly if the eggs are collected at different times!

BODY WEIGHT
Increases could be a little erratic as not all the hens develop their reproductive system at the same time. However, body weight should never decrease, and a clear growth trend should be observed.

FEED AND WATER

As mentioned, consumption should increase every day. Water is the easiest parameter to monitor daily and is a critical management measure.

Female body weight and % lay until week 30

Brown Nick

Nick Chik, Super Nick, Crystal Nick and Coral

KEY POINTS

• Monitor how well the flock has adapted to the laying house by measuring water consumption daily and body weight weekly.
• Evaluate crop filling score 24 hours after transfer.
• Control the onset of lay and egg weight by correctly applying light stimulation.
• Never decrease day length in the production period.
• Closely monitor the increase in egg production, body weight (males and females), feed and water consumption during the weeks preceding the production peak. If the flock is not performing correctly, take corrective measures as soon as possible.
• Keep an eye on male’s behavior especially during the last 4 hours of the lighting program.