Pinoyagribusiness

Keep hens healthy

A hen that is healthy and not badly stressed will be resistant to infection by Salmonella bacteria. In the event that it does carry these bacteria, there is less likelihood that they will be shed into eggs if the hen is in good condition.

Things to do:

* Maintain optimum temperature and air quality in the house.
* Do not allow the supply of feed and water to be interrupted for extended periods except when called for by scheduled management.
* Ensure that the water supply is clean and uncontaminated.
* Hens should not be overcrowded
* Monitor feed and water consumption closely to be able to identify and deal with a disease outbreak as soon as possible.
* Maintain good biosecurity, e.g., keep birds, animals and unauthorized people out of the layer house. Farm workers should avoid contact with poultry other than birds in the farm flock.

Keep the house clean

A house that is clean and free of vermin will harbor fewer Salmonella bacteria and present fewer opportunities for contamination of eggs. Rodent control is especially important because rodent feces may contain great numbers of Salmonella bacteria.

Things to do:

* Pick up mortality promptly. Carcasses left to go putrid can grow large populations of bacteria, creating risk of hens becoming infected or eggs becoming contaminated.
* Don’t let manure build up on dropping boards. Dropping must fall freely away from cages to minimize the number of eggs soiled by fecal materials.
* Prevent buildup of dust, dirt, broken eggs, and cobwebs in the house. These can harbor bacteria in the vicinity of hens and eggs.
* Scrape or wash dried yolk from broken eggs of egg belts, egg elevators, cross conveyors, and egg packing machines. Clean the egg packer regularly.
* Consult your county extension office for information about rodent control, or obtain the services of competent rodent control professionals.
* Keep worker restrooms clean.

Handle eggs properly

Fresh, whole eggs contain natural resistance factors that inhibit bacterial growth if the eggs are kept cool.

Things to do:

* Collect all eggs promptly, especially in hot weather.
* Store unprocessed eggs under refrigeration as soon as possible on farms without in-line processing plants. The temperature in the egg cooler should not rise above its set point except briefly when eggs are moved into or out of the cooler. Repair broken refrigeration units without delay. Keep the cooler door closed.
* Handle eggs carefully to minimize cracks.

Keeps pesticides and hazardous chemicals away off eggs

Things to do:

* Use pesticides and other hazardous chemicals in the house only when necessary.
* Use these products only if approved for egg production.

Record keeping


Quality assurance involves creation of confidence that eggs have been produced under high standards for food safety. This cannot be done without keeping good records. Unfortunately, record-keeping may prove to be the most difficult task in the entire quality assurance program, because, for the most part, people are not used to doing it.

Things to do:

* Specific individuals should have the job of keeping specific records.
* Records should be kept on file in designated places until they are judged to be obsolete.

How to choose eggs

There are several ways of determining the freshness of an egg. A common test is to place it between the eye and a strong light. If fresh, the white will appear translucent, and the outline of the yolk can be distinctly traced. By keeping, eggs become cloudy and when decidedly stale, a dark, cloud-like appearance may be discerned opposite some portion of the shell.

Another test is to shake the egg gently at the ear; if a gurgle or thud is heard, the egg is bad. Again, eggs may be tested by putting them in a vessel containing a solution of salt and water, in the proportion of a tablespoonful of salt to a quart of water. Fresh eggs will sink; if more than six days old, they will float in the liquid; if bad, they will be so light as to ride on the surface of the brine. The shell of a freshly laid egg is almost full, but because the shell is so porous, with age and exposure to air a portion of the liquid substance evaporates and air accumulates in its place.

How to keep eggs

There is a difference of opinion as to which end should be placed down in packing; most authorities recommend the smaller end. However, an experienced poultry man offers the following reasons for packing with the larger end down: The air cell is in the larger end, and if that is placed down, the yolk will not break through and touch the shell and thereby spoil. Also, if the air cell is down, the egg is not so likely to shrink away.

source: http://www.da.gov.ph

Commercial Egg Production and Processing
By Pinoy Farmer | April 28, 2008





The poultry industry is vertically integrated, which means the industry has a tremendous amount of control of their products. It is distinctly different from many other animal industries. In that egg producers own and manage nearly every aspect of their business (e.g., rearing of birds, feeding, housing, husbandry, and marketing of their product) and are capable of meticulously monitoring the entire process. Poultry producers usually do not own the primary breeding stock (i.e., the parent lines supplying their operation), these birds are purchased from primary breeders.

Raising Layers (Leghorns)

The purpose of this section is to provide a general overview of a typical layer cycle in terms of chick placement, vaccination schedules, lighting, heating/cooling, feeding, molting, and removal of layers. Keep in mind, there are a number of ways to rear laying hens. It would be very unlikely that any two companies rear layers exactly the same way. However, all companies use a slight variation of the typical rearing program detailed in this section. Management differences for rearing layers may be accounted for by economics (breed selected, vaccination package and decision when to molt), producer preference (breed and strain selected), and/or geography (breed selected and vaccination package).

Hatching and Placement

Egg producers purchase their layer stock (i.e., day old leghorn chick) from an egg-type hatchery. Hatcheries deliver chicks to the producer within one to two days of hatching. At arrival, chicks are either placed in typical layer pens or reared in a pullet house. At the hatchery, chicks are vaccinated according to the producer’s specifications. For details regarding a typical vaccination schedule see Table 1.

Lighting and Temperature

Lighting and temperature conditions for a typical layer production period are shown in Tables 2, and 3 respectively. For those chicks reared in layer cages, a biodegradable mat is generally placed in the pen. The mat allows chicks to better locate feed while also providing time for the chicks to slowly adjust to the wire mesh floor. Within a week, the biodegradable mat is removed or degrades into the litter pit. A single layer cage may occupy as many as fifty chicks, but as they mature, cage density is lessened. Chicks placed in pullet houses are reared on a floor covered with absorbent materials, such as pine shavings. During the first week, pullet chicks are usually beak trimmed. Pullets started on the floor remain there for approximately 10 to 15 weeks and then move to a layer facility. In either case, from chick placement through approximately 16 weeks of life, the pullets are fed according to body weight gain and/or age.

The goal is to raise a strong and healthy bird that can support egg production. As noted in Table 2, daily light exposure (photoperiod) begins to increase at Week 16. This increase in light exposure triggers hens to begin laying eggs. If the laying hen has not reached proper body weight (usually 3 lbs.) by Week 18, egg production will cease very quickly, following the onset of the laying period. Hence, it is important for the young laying hen (pullet) to attain the proper body weight that will support egg production. In tandem with light manipulation, the diet is also altered in order to support egg production.

Feeding

It is assumed that layers, unlike birds raised specifically for meat, regulate their feed intake. Layers are generally reared on full feed (ad libitum). The feed is offered to birds via the chain system. The chain system transports feed into the metal feeder at precise times during the day. In general, 2 inches of feeder space is allotted per pullet and 2.5 inches or more for each adult laying hen (Animal Care Series, California Poultry Workshop, 1998). Table 4 illustrates the dietary protein and energy recommendations based on age in of typical layer. Young birds are fed a high protein diet (20 percent) during the first few weeks of life. This level continuously decreases until it reaches approximately 12 to 15 percent protein during egg production. In addition to monitoring dietary protein, producers must closely examine other ingredients. During the laying phase, lysine, methionine, calcium, and phosphorus are precisely monitored to support maximum egg production.

Egg Production

As shown in Table 2 and Table 4, producers begin to photostimulate and manipulate the diet around 18 weeks of age in order to support egg production. Minor nutrients have also been manipulated such that calcium levels in the diet are approximately five to seven times greater than phosphorus levels. When a flock (group of hens) first enters egg production, the rate of egg lay will be around 10 to 20 percent. This means that 10 to 20 percent of the hens are laying eggs at 18 to 22 weeks of age. The flock quickly reaches peak egg production (90 plus percent) around 30 to 32 weeks of age. Post-peak egg production (after 30 to 32 weeks of age) continually decreases to approximately fifty percent around 60 to 70 weeks of age. At this point an economic decision must be made by the producer; fifty percent production is near the “break-even” point for egg producers (e.g., feed cost = market price of eggs). When the flock reaches 50 percent production, producers commonly decide to molt the flock in order to achieve a higher level of egg production.

As a rule of thumb, it takes approximately 10 weeks from the beginning of a molting program to be back at 50 percent production following the molt. Post-molt egg production will increase such that peak egg production reaches about 80 percent. Peak production following a molt is short-lived and the flock generally returns to 50 percent production by 100 to 110 weeks of age. Many producers (one-third to one-half) will induce a second molt, this is the same process that occurred at 60 to 70 weeks of age. The second molt is commonly dictated by the current egg prices and the availability of replacement pullets. As previously stated, once flock egg production falls below fifty percent, an economic decision is made whether to molt the birds or the hens to a spent-hen processing facility. The majority of hens are between 100 and 130 weeks of age when they reach the end of their egg production cycle. The time span between 100 and 130 weeks of age can be accounted for by management decisions. Thus hens may be molted a second time and then sent to a spent hen facility (120 to 130 weeks of age) or sent directly to a spent hen facility following the first molt (100 to 110 weeks of age). After the flock vacates the layer house, the house is stripped of all organic matter and sanitized before another flock enters the house.

Egg Collection

In layer facilities, there are two primary methods of egg collection, a) in-line facilities, and b) off-line facilities. In either case, hens lay eggs onto an angled wire floor which rolls the egg toward the front of the cage (floor angle is generally eight to ten degrees) onto a nylon belt. The belt transports eggs out of the house either to the egg processing facility or to a storage cooler. Since the processing facility and cooler remove eggs from the house, based on hourly demand, eggs may reside on the belt for as long as 12 to 14 hours, but most are collected within a few hours post-lay.

The first type of layer facility is the in-line facility. In this facility, eggs move directly from the layer house to the egg processing facility. Once the eggs enter the egg processing center, within minutes to 12 to 14 hours post-lay, they are washed (detergent solution near 100°F, pH 11.0 that removes soil), visual inspected (checked for eggshell problems, cracks, and blood spots), and then graded for packaging. Following packaging, eggs are moved to a cooler room (40-45°F), where they await shipment to retail outlets. Egg producers commonly deliver eggs to retail outlets within one week of lay.

The second type of layer facility is the off-line facility. This facility functions nearly identical to the in-line facility except that the eggs are transported out of the house directly to an egg cooling room. In this method, the eggs remain in the cool room for approximately two to three days, and then they are transported to an egg processing facility via a refrigerated truck. These eggs are treated identically as those from the in-line operations.

Table 1. A typical vaccination schedule for leghorns

Week of Vaccination Type of Vaccination
Day old Marek’s
15 days (1/2 dose) Infectious Bursal
20 days (1/2 dose) Infectious Bursal
25 days Bronchitis, New Castle, Infectious Bursal (Typical Brand name Combo Vec. 30)
30 days Bronchitis, New Castle, Infectious Bursal (Typical Brand name Combo Vec. 30)
49 days Bronchitis, New Castle, Infectious Bursal (Typical Brand name Combo Vec. 30)
10 Weeks Fowl Pox and Laryngotracheitis (commonly referred to as LT)
12 Week Combo Vac 30
13 Week Avian Encephalomyelitis (commonly referred to as AE)
16 Week New Castle

Table 2. Lighting program for the leghorn.

Age Amount of Light (L) and Dark (D)
0 to 3 Days  22(L):2(D)
3 days to 1 Week 20(L):4(D)
1 to 2 Week 18(L):6(D)
2 to 3 Week 16(L):8(D)
3 to 8 Week 14.5(L):9.5(D)
9 Week 14(L):10(D)
10 Week 13.75(L):10.25(D)
11 Week 13.50(L):10.50(D)
12 Week 13.25(L):10.75(D)
13 Week 13.0(L):11.0(D)
14 Week 12.75(L):11.25(D)
15 - 17 Week 12.5(L):11.50(D)
18 Week 13.50(L):10.50(D)
19 Week 14.5(L):9.5(D)
20 Week 15(L):9(D)
21 Week 15.5(L):8.5(D)
22 Week 15.75(L):8.25(D)
23 Week 16(L):8(D)
24 Week 16.25(L):7.75(D)
25 Week throughout production cycle 16.5(L):7.5(D)

Table 3. Temperature control during a layer cycle

Week  Temperature (F)
 
1 90
2 85
3 80
4 75
5 70
6 throughout layer cycle 70

Table 4. General Feeding Guidelines for Layers.

Nutrient  Starter
0-6 weeks
 Grower
6-8 wk
 Developer
8-15 wk
 Pre-Layer
15-18 wk
 Layer
Protein % 20.0 18.0 16.0 14.5 15.0
Met. Energy, Kcal./lb. 1325-1375 1350-1400 1375-1425 1350-1400 1300-1450