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Egg-laying hens

A guide to raising laying hens for egg production.

Updated 15 April 2024

Managing egg-laying hens

You must manage your flock actively to ensure their welfare and check on your hens at least once a day. If your hens have access to outdoors, you must also ensure that their coop is locked during the night after they gather to roost, to keep them safe from predators.

If you go on holiday, you must therefore get someone qualified to for egg-laying hens to check, feed and water them for you each day.

Feeding & watering hens

You are legally responsible for providing your hens a nutritious diet that supports their wellbeing. Chickens are sensitive to sudden changes in their feeding, and it is important to establish a routine and only change it gradually.

You must feed your hens at least once a day, or at regular intervals, and ensure that they have enough water available at all times.

Make sure to keep feeding and drinking equipment clean, and protect them from wild birds and rodents. Remove old feed, and replace drinking water daily.

Chickens also need grit to digest food properly, and can be given soluble grit to supplement calcium. Read more about using poultry grit.

To be certified organic, you may need to feed your hens only organically produced feed and manage their pasture through organically approved methods. Check with your organic certifying body for specific requirements.

You must not feed mealworms or catering/kitchen waste to your hens.
Check foods that are poisonous to hens.
If you give them animal feed and are selling eggs, you must register as a feed business (see ’Feed business registration’).

Monitoring food & water

It can be helpful to have feeding and watering equipment (like water meters) that allow you to monitor how much your hens and eating and drinking. This helps you to detect any problems in their health early on.

The body weight and egg quality/laying frequency of hens are also useful indicators of potential problems with their diet or health.

Foraging

If your hens have access to a pasture, they can get some of their food by foraging and you can improve the quality of their forage by planting specific plants. The Organic Research Centre has published a technical note on poultry foraging from the range, which is a useful starting point for understanding how to do this.

Collecting eggs

Check the nest boxes for eggs daily during the laying season, and always wash your hands afterwards. If you find that your hens regularly lay outside the nesting boxes, you may need to increase the number of nests or consider its placement.

’Egg production’, Accidental Smallholder

Laying season

Hens will usually lay eggs spring to autumn, after which egg production will slow or stop as days get darker. In the autumn, chicken will moult during which they will lose and replace their feathers.

After every laying season, the hen’s egg production will drop by around 20-25%.

You can prolong the laying season by offering them artificial lighting — however, you must still maintain a daylight rhythm, including twilight time, and never keep lights on all the time.

Problems with eggs

You may encounter eggs that look unusual, like eggs spotted with blood or with weak shells. This can be a sign of a health issue such as parasites or nutritional deficiency. The Poultry Keeper has a useful overview of how do identify problems with eggs and address them.

Storing eggs

Eggs must be kept clean and stored in a dry and cool place that is secure from rodents, and out of direct sunshine. Make sure to store eggs from the same flock laid on the same day together, so you do not mislabel them (see ’Labelling’).

Cleaning

Maintaining good hygiene in your chicken coop and any pasture areas is important for preventing and controlling disease and parasites, and should be part of your biosecurity plan (see ’Biosecurity plan’).

Make sure to wear protective clothing when doing a clean of the coop and the run. For disinfecting, you must use a DEFRA approved disinfectant.

On a daily basis, you should clean waterers and check nest boxes for eggs.
On a weekly basis, you should clean feeders, the coop and the run. This includes cleaning out the entire or top layer of the litter, and using a ground sanitiser if needed.
Spring and autumn is a good time to do a deep-clean of the coop, disinfecting them entirely.

Transporting chickens

If you transport hens to your farm/croft or take them elsewhere in a vehicle, you have a legal responsibility to ensure their welfare during transit. You must log all journeys

If you sell eggs from your hens, you are considered to be transporting hens for ’commercial purposes’ and must comply with relevant regulations. You are exempt if you are transporting the chicken to a vet or for a journey that is under 50km.

After transporting poultry, you must clean and disinfect your vehicle after unloading. You must do this within 24 hours of before using the vehicle to transport poultry/livestock again, whichever comes first.

Read more about your legal duties on animal welfare during transport (this guidance also applies to Scotland).

Approvals

If you transport poultry more than 65km, you will need to apply for two types of approvals. There are different requirements for both approvals depending on whether the journey is under or over 8 hours.

Drivers need a Certificate of Competence (CoC) which confirms that they know how to transport animals responsibly. CoC is not required for journeys to the vet. NPTC City & Guilds Assessment Centre and Lantra organize CoC courses.
Your farming/crofting business needs a Transporter Authorisation. Contact APHA Welfare in Transport team for an application pack – the authorisation is valid for 5 years.

If the journey is over 8 hours, you must also get your vehicle and containers approved. This approval is valid for 5 years, and you can find details of certifying bodies on APHA website.

Egg-laying hens