Behaviour: pecking, floor eggs, nests, light, density, and the settings that work
A hen pecking her neighbour, a hen laying in a corner, a nest left empty while three hens fight for the one next to it: these are not whims, they are responses to a setting of the house. The layer track described pecking and cannibalism; this lesson teaches the technician to measure behaviour (plumage score, percentage of floor eggs, nest occupation), to trace it back to the setting that causes it (light, density, nests, feed, heat) and to correct it in order, with the figures of a house of 2,000 hens.
14 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.
A hen pecking her neighbour, a hen laying in a corner, a nest left empty while three hens fight for the one next to it: these are not whims, they are responses to a setting of the house. The layer track described pecking and cannibalism; this lesson teaches the technician to measure behaviour (plumage score, percentage of floor eggs, nest occupation), to trace it back to the setting that causes it (light, density, nests, feed, heat) and to correct it in order, with the figures of a house of 2,000 hens.
- ✓Score the plumage of a flock (grid from 1 to 4 on 50 hens) and interpret the change from one month to the next
- ✓Set light (intensity, distribution, nest shade) and density to prevent pecking
- ✓Bring the percentage of floor eggs below 2% through the setting of nests, corners and the morning routine
- ✓Put in place a walk-through routine in the house that calms the hens and detects drifts early
- Reading a house through behaviour
- Pecking: measuring with the plumage score, tracing back to the settings
- Floor eggs: the setting of nests, corners and the morning
- Light and density: the two underlying settings
- The routine that calms: the technician's walk-through
- Going further
- •Behaviour moves before lay and mortality: we read it on entering (distribution, noise, litter, plumage, nests) and we measure it.
- •Plumage score on 50 hens, 1 to 4, every month: average ≤ 1.3 and under 5% at scores 3-4 = calm; beyond, look in order at light, density, feed, heat, occupation, wounds, parasites.
- •Light: uniform 10 to 20 lux, nests under 5 lux, no direct sun (curtains, cloth, overhang); we act on intensity, never on duration (a stable 16 h).
- •Floor eggs: under 2% after 30 weeks; 1 nest for 5 to 6, threshold at 40-50 cm with a step, dark and clean nests, closed at night, meshed corners, map over 3 mornings, 4 walk-throughs per morning for 3 weeks.
- •Floor density in an open-sided house: about 5 hens per m²; above that, queues, floor eggs, pecking, wet litter, and fewer eggs per hen housed in total.