How do you cull for egg production when chickens aren't caged? I know my white egg layers are laying one per day, but the others... I have no idea.
I go where few dare to go...internally. I insert the tip of a gloved finger into the vent to palpate for the next day's egg(this is done at night, of course). If she's laying that next day, you should feel the hardness of the egg through the wall of her rectum. Mark all that don't have an egg ready. I use zip ties on the left leg...usually green.
Next night, do it all again...mark all who do not have an egg ready. Mark the other leg if she doesn't currently have a zip tie...you can even use another color if it helps to keep track, but I always use green for culls. This is a chicken who gets another chance at being an every other day layer.
If she has a zip tie already and doesn't have an egg again the next night, leave that left leg zip tie and add one to the other leg~both green. That is a girl that will be culled in the fall. I usually use green ties for those birds so they are easily seen and identified when plucking them off the roost come fall.
Really good layers are often marked with a red zip tie~this is done when I'm checking POL pullets who have come into lay on time and came into lay with a daily schedule...that's usually in the fall or late winter, not during this culling check. Those red zip ties are hens I pay special attention to all throughout the year as to their laying cycles.
Third night, check again...this is the night that will tell you if you have daily layers, every other day layers or a non layer. Those with two zip ties need not be checked...you already know they are not laying daily or even every other day.
If you get some with a zip tie (from that second night's check) that have an egg ready, remove their zip tie...they are every other day chickens~depending on the age or breed, you may want to keep her.
Conceivably, these could even be chickens who are laying once a week and you hit it lucky...but you can also tell by their vent if they are a more frequent layer than that, so I don't go there....a person could do that all day long. Gotta trust things eventually.
If it's an older hen, for me it's expected that she not be laying daily. If it's a new pullet that's already been well into her new laying cycle but she's only laying every other day, she's a cull and I switch the zip tie to her left side and make it a green one.
She'll never get better than she is at POL, so why keep her around if she's not a daily layer as a brand new hen? A person can feed a daily layer as well as they can feed an every other day layer...they both eat the same amount but one is working harder. I like hard workers. I don't mind feeding hard workers.
Come fall I pick all the green tie birds off the roost come butchering day and do the deed the following day. No looking back. Thin out the numbers you take through the winter, leaving your best to be laying come spring and to get replacement layers from...this all makes for a flock that lays at the highest production you can expect and can get without using trap nesting techniques to find out.
As time goes on, and if you do these checks each early spring(late Mar/early Apr), you will slowly whittle into the poor layers until, when you do this check, you'll find very few that are non layers or sporadic layers. When you do it's often an older hen who is no longer going to be laying in cycles and this is a good time to cull her from the flock before she develops reproductive issues due to age.
I hope that was easily understood?
1. Check all hens...those without an egg get a green zip tie to left leg.
2. Check all hens again..those without an egg get a green zip tie to right leg, those with a green tie already, get one also, but this time to the other leg.
3. Check only hens without two green ties...those that earned another are the end of your cull list for that group. Those that passed all three nights with only one tie or no ties get another chance...remove the single green ties if they have an egg the third night. Leave it or add another to the other leg if they do not have an egg ready the third night.
4. Come fall, all birds with green ties are killed. These are birds that are not laying at peak levels when all birds should be doing so. They'll never get better production than they will at this time of year.
