Tuesday, August 28, 2018

How Do Hylines and Shavers Compare?

I’ve been asked before how Shavers and Hylines compare. Here is a useful comment from the Lifestyle Block forum from Sue Clarke, a very experienced poultry person.
“Straight from the Management guides for both breeds,
Peak production Hyline 94%-96% Shaver 95% Age at 50% production Hyline 142 days Shaver 144 days Egg weight at 26 weeks Hyline 58.5gms Shaver 58.1gms Egg weight at 32 weeks Hyline 61.6gms Shaver 57.5gms Egg weight at 70 weeks Hyline 64.6gms Shaver 66.4gms Body weight at 80 weeks Hyline 2kgs Shaver 2kgs Cumulative eggs to 80 weeks Hyline 358.2 eggs Shaver 349 eggs Liveability to 80 weeks Hyline 94% Shaver 94%
So you can see there is very little difference but straight from the birds beak, so to speak[📷]
Hylines tend to be more docile and are more forgiving when conditions are not quite ideal, eg feed might not quite be up to specifications or temperature fluctuations more extreme!
Yes CI, you did correctly note that the Shaver egg size at the start tends to be a bit smaller than Hyline, and egg quality and variability in later lay tends to be more eratic in the Shaver, though the eggs tend to be slightly bigger at the end of the season. Total egg mass for Shaver is 22.1kgs of egg per hen to 80 weeks whereas Hyline egg mass to 80 weeks is 21.7kgs.
A lot of these standards are obtained from large commercial flocks that meet target bodyweights and are ad lib fed, so any variations may be down to environmental influences during rear or lay.
Sue Clarke”