Stages In Maintaining Laying Chicken
Laying hens are adult hens that are specially raised for their eggs. In general, the origin of laying hens is from partridge that is caught and maintained and can lay quite a lot of eggs.
In general, laying hens are reared to produce eggs and are the final product of broilers and should not be crossed again. In this case, laying chickens are reared at several stages of maintenance. For more, see the following explanation.
Maintenance of laying hens is generally divided into three phases of maintenance based on age, namely first (starter), second (grower), and third (layer). The starting phase starts from 0–8 weeks of age, where size and uniformity are the goals for chicken farmers.
The second phase starts at 8–20 weeks of age, the chickens need to be reared under a very carefully controlled feed management, to avoid the chickens from unacceptable body weight.
Read More: Broiler Chicken Livestock Guide
The third phase begins after the chickens are 20 weeks old, in this phase the chickens are required to accelerate growth to provide for sexual development and to achieve optimal body weight uniformity.
There are three phases of raising laying broilers based on their nutritional needs, namely the starter phase from 0–6 weeks of age, the grower phase from 6–18 weeks of age, and the layer phase above 18 weeks of age.
The growth phase in laying breed chickens is between the ages of 6–14 weeks and ages of 14–20 weeks. However, at the age of 14–20 weeks, the growth has decreased and is often called the development phase.
Due to this, the transfer from the starter cage to the growth phase is between 6–8 weeks of age. After the growth phase chickens reach the age of 18 weeks, these chickens can be transferred to the production phase layer chicken coops.
The production period for laying hens consists of two periods, namely the first phase from the age of 22–42 weeks with an average egg production of 78% and an egg weight of 56 grams, the second phase aged 42–47 weeks with an average egg production of 72% and egg weight. 60 grams.
Adult chickens at 19 weeks of age and marked with the first egg. In principle, production will increase rapidly in the first months and reach peak production at the age of 7–8 months.