Key Technical Points and Daily Rearing Management Methods for Laying Hens
Laying hens are mainly kept in cages or free-range (also called free-range). Compared with free-range, cage rearing has higher rearing efficiency, such as feed conversion rate and laying rate, which are higher than those of free-range; free-range can improve the quality of eggs and meet consumers' demand for egg quality. Doing a good job in epidemic prevention is the top priority in rearing. Next is the rational conversion of feed.
What types of commercial varieties of laying hens are there?
According to differences in eggshell color, modern commercial varieties of laying hens are mainly divided into the following 3 types.
(1) Modern white-shell laying hens all originate from variants of the Single Comb White Leghorn; through breeding different pure lines, two-line, three-line or four-line hybrid commercial laying hens are produced. Generally, the sex-linked fast-slow feathering gene is used to achieve chick sexing in the commercial generation. This chicken is suitable for intensive cage rearing management. Common white-shell laying hen varieties in production include Shaver 288, Babcock B300, Hy-Line W36, Hy-Line W98, Lohmann White, Dekalb White, Nick White, Jingbai 938, etc.
(2) Brown-shell laying hens mainly use the sex-linked plumage color gene to achieve chick sexing. The most important matching model uses Rhode Island Red chickens (with a small amount of New Hampshire chicken bloodline added) as the paternal line, and varieties carrying the sex-linked silver gene such as Rhode Island White or White Plymouth Rock as the maternal line. When using the barred gene for sexing, Rhode Island Red chickens or other non-barred plumage type chicken varieties (such as Australorp) are used as the paternal line, and Barred Plymouth Rock chickens are used as the maternal line for matching, to produce commercial brown-shell laying hens. Common brown-shell laying hen varieties in production include Hy-Line Brown, Lohmann Brown, Isa, Hisex Brown, Nick Red, etc.
(3) Light brown-shell (or pink-shell) laying hens are chicken breeds produced by crossing light White Leghorn chickens with medium-sized brown-shell laying hens; therefore, the standard varieties used as modern white-shell laying hens and brown-shell laying hens can generally also be used for light brown-shell laying hens. At present, the main approach is to use Rhode Island Red type chickens as the paternal line and cross them with White Leghorn type chicken maternal lines, and use the sex-linked fast-slow feathering gene for sexing.