Managing Free-Range Laying Hens-Part A: Frequent and Non-Frequent Range Users Differ in Laying Performance but Not Egg Quality

Author(s)
Sibanda, Terence Zimazile
Kolakshyapati, Manisha
Welch, Mitchell
Schneider, Derek
Boshoff, Johan
Ruhnke, Isabelle
Publication Date
2020-06-06
Abstract
Little is known about the impact of ranging on laying performance and egg quality of free-range hens. The aim of this study was to characterise egg production of commercial free-range laying hen sub-populations of low-, moderate- and high-range use at an early age. A total of five flocks with 40,000 hens/flock were investigated where 1875 hens/flock were randomly selected at 16 weeks of age, monitored for their range use and subsequently grouped into "stayers" (the 20% of hens that spent the least time on the range), "roamers" (the 20% of the hens that used the range more than stayers but less than rangers) and "rangers" (the 60% of the hens that spent the most time on the range). Eggs from the individual groups were collected in 10-weekly intervals until hens were 72 weeks of age, commercially graded and tested for several quality parameters. Significant differences were noted for hen-day production. For example, at 22 weeks of age, rangers enjoyed a laying rate of 88.0% ± 1.1%, while stayers performed at 78.2% ± 1.9% but at 72 weeks of age egg production of rangers was 85.1% ± 0.9% and of stayers was 95.5% ± 0.9% (<i>p</i> < 0.05). Range use was of minor importance to the egg quality.
Citation
Animals, 10(6), p. 1-16
ISSN
2076-2615
Pubmed ID
32517207
Link
Publisher
MDPI AG
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International
Title
Managing Free-Range Laying Hens-Part A: Frequent and Non-Frequent Range Users Differ in Laying Performance but Not Egg Quality
Type of document
Journal Article
Entity Type
Publication

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