Field exercise: keep the laying record of a house for two weeks and read it
Everything the previous eight lessons taught comes together on a single sheet: the laying record. A technician who keeps it well sees a drop coming before it costs; a technician who keeps it badly (or not at all) discovers problems when the entrepreneur counts the trays. This exercise has you keep the record of a real house for fourteen days, with the equipment, the routine, the evening calculations and the Sunday reading. It is presented on our house of 2,000 Novogen Brown at 36-37 weeks; you redo it on yours, whatever the flock size.
15 min read · 5-question quiz at the end
By Abdul Hussein ChoumanFounder of NEXTEKCI · Agnibilékrou hatchery since 2006This lesson is part of Laying hens, expert level specialisation. It opens to every registered student, from free registration. Levels 1 to 5 and the tracks remain readable by everyone.
Everything the previous eight lessons taught comes together on a single sheet: the laying record. A technician who keeps it well sees a drop coming before it costs; a technician who keeps it badly (or not at all) discovers problems when the entrepreneur counts the trays. This exercise has you keep the record of a real house for fourteen days, with the equipment, the routine, the evening calculations and the Sunday reading. It is presented on our house of 2,000 Novogen Brown at 36-37 weeks; you redo it on yours, whatever the flock size.
- ✓Prepare the equipment and the daily laying record of a house, with its 13 columns
- ✓Fill in the record every day for 14 days: counts, weighings, evening calculations
- ✓Do the weekly summary and compare the two weeks (lay, defects, feed, water, mortality, egg weight)
- ✓Read the record like an expert: spot the signals that precede lay, classify the situation and write the decision
- Equipment and record: what is needed before the first day
- The 14-day routine: who does what, at what time
- The completed record: 14 days on the house of 2,000 hens
- The summary: comparing the two weeks
- Reading the record like an expert: the five-step method
- Your turn: the exercise on your house
- •The laying record has 13 columns (present, dead, nests, floor, cracked, dirty, total, lay %, feed kg and g/hen, water and max T°, observations) and is filled in at the moment of counting, never from memory.
- •Essential equipment: water meter, scale, max-min thermometer, three marked buckets; routine at the same times by the same person.
- •The Sunday summary compares 12 indicators with the previous week; lay moves last: feed, water, egg weight and cracked eggs move 4 to 7 days before.
- •Five-step reading: date, name the events, link, classify and decide in writing, set the expected figure.
- •In the example: heat from Tuesday 9, feed − 7.4 g, water/feed 2.65, cracked 2.8%, shell 9.1%, lay − 1.5 point only: act this week, before lay follows.