The layer's feed week by week: calcium, energy, heat, and water
Feed is the largest share of what an egg costs, and it is also the first cause of thin shells, small eggs and drops in lay in Côte d'Ivoire. The layer does not eat the same thing at 18 weeks, at 30 and at 70; she does not eat the same quantity at 26 °C and at 35 °C; and she does nothing without water. This lesson gives the technician the benchmarks week by week, the calculation of quantities for 2,000 hens, the rule of coarse calcium in the evening, and the actions that make a hen eat when it is hot.
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.
Feed is the largest share of what an egg costs, and it is also the first cause of thin shells, small eggs and drops in lay in Côte d'Ivoire. The layer does not eat the same thing at 18 weeks, at 30 and at 70; she does not eat the same quantity at 26 °C and at 35 °C; and she does nothing without water. This lesson gives the technician the benchmarks week by week, the calculation of quantities for 2,000 hens, the rule of coarse calcium in the evening, and the actions that make a hen eat when it is hot.
- ✓Describe the layer's feed phases (pre-lay, layer 1, 2, 3) with their protein, energy and calcium benchmarks
- ✓Calculate the quantities of feed, calcium and water for a house, and check actual intake in grams per hen
- ✓Apply the rule of coarse calcium in the evening and explain why it protects the shell and the skeleton
- ✓Adapt distribution and water on hot days to maintain the grams eaten
- What the hen asks for every day
- The phases, week by week
- Calcium: the rule of coarse calcium in the evening
- Heat: making a hen eat when she is too hot
- Water: half of the feed
- Going further
- •Grams eaten × percentage = grams received: it is the only way to judge a feed; a hen at peak must receive about 20 g of protein and at least 4 g of calcium a day.
- •Phases: pre-lay (Ca 2 to 2.5%) → layer 1 (17-18% protein, Ca 3.5 to 4%) → layer 2 (Ca 4 to 4.2%) → layer 3 (Ca 4.2 to 4.5%); calcium goes up, protein and energy go down; change over 4 days.
- •At least half of the calcium in coarse form (2 to 4 mm), distributed in the late afternoon: it feeds the shell at night and spares the bone.
- •Heat: 40% in the morning, 60% in the evening, water under 28 °C, midnight meal during the wave, more concentrated formula, house at about 5 hens per m².
- •Water = 1.8 to 2 times the feed in mild weather, 3 to 4 times in heat; 2 days of reserve; a 10% fall in water announces the drop in lay.