Managing Free-Range Laying Hens—Part A: Frequent and Non-Frequent Range Users Differ in Laying Performance but Not Egg Quality

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Free-range laying hens are allowed to roam around and exhibit their desired behaviours including usage of the outdoor range. Consequently, flock sub-populations of high-range users (“rangers”) and low-range users (“stayers”) appear. The subpopulation effect on egg production and egg quality has not been studied to date. Rangers were more consistent in their range use, while stayers increased their range use over time. Rangers came into lay earlier compared to the stayers but their egg production dropped during mid-lay until the end of lay when they were outperformed by the stayers. The flock sub-populations did not differ in their egg quality during the production period. These findings are of relevance to egg producers, as it allows them to manage their flock knowing that they can encourage them to range/stay in the shed without compromising egg quality, including off-grade eggs. In the future, it would be interesting to investigate if increased egg performance was triggered by the more frequent range usage. ABSTRACT: Little is known about the impact of ranging on laying performance and egg quality of free-range hens. The aim of this study was to characterise egg production of commercial free-range laying hen sub-populations of low-, moderate- and high-range use at an early age. A total of five flocks with 40,000 hens/flock were investigated where 1875 hens/flock were randomly selected at 16 weeks of age, monitored for their range use and subsequently grouped into “stayers” (the 20% of hens that spent the least time on the range), “roamers” (the 20% of the hens that used the range more than stayers but less than rangers) and “rangers” (the 60% of the hens that spent the most time on the range). Eggs from the individual groups were collected in 10-weekly intervals until hens were 72 weeks of age, commercially graded and tested for several quality parameters. Significant differences were noted for hen-day production. For example, at 22 weeks of age, rangers enjoyed a laying rate of 88.0% ± 1.1%, while stayers performed at 78.2% ± 1.9% but at 72 weeks of age egg production of rangers was 85.1% ± 0.9% and of stayers was 95.5% ± 0.9% (p < 0.05). Range use was of minor importance to the egg quality.