A farmer near Kasoa called us last year with a complaint we hear often. She had 500 layers, her feed bill was climbing past GH₵9,000 a month, and her egg collection had slipped from 14 crates a day to barely 10. She assumed disease. When we walked the house with her, the birds looked healthy enough. The real problem was that close to a hundred of them had quietly stopped laying, and every one of those hens was still eating 120 grams of feed a day.
A hen that eats but does not lay is a small hole in your pocket, and a hundred of them together become a hole you cannot ignore. Learning to find those birds by hand, and having the discipline to remove them, is one of the cheapest ways to lift the profit of a layer farm in Ghana. This article shows you how we do it.
Why culling matters more than most farmers think
Feed is the biggest cost on any layer farm, usually 65 to 75 percent of everything you spend. A good hen in full lay converts roughly 2 kg of feed into a dozen eggs. A hen that has stopped laying converts the same feed into nothing at all. If layer mash sits at around GH₵3.50 to GH₵4.50 per kilogram, one non-layer eats through about GH₵15 of feed every month. Multiply by 80 or 100 idle birds and you are losing more than a thousand cedis monthly on animals that contribute no income.
Non-layers also occupy space, add to litter moisture and compete at the feeder with the hens that are actually working. We cover the wider economics in our guide to layer farming and egg production in Ghana.
The physical signs of a hen in lay
You cannot tell a layer from a non-layer by looking at the flock from the doorway. You have to pick birds up. A hen in full production shows a cluster of signs that experienced farmers learn to read in a few seconds.
- Comb and wattles. Large, bright red, warm, and slightly waxy to the touch. A hen that has gone out of lay develops a pale, shrunken, dry comb within two or three weeks.
- Vent. Wide, moist, oval and pale. A non-layer has a small, round, dry, yellowish vent.
- Pubic bones. Feel for the two pin bones just below the vent. In a laying hen they are flexible and spread at least two finger widths apart. In a non-layer they are stiff and you can barely fit one finger between them.
- Abdomen. Soft, full and pliable with a good depth between the pin bones and the keel (three to four fingers). A hard, shallow abdomen suggests the ovary has shut down.
- Pigment loss. In yellow-skinned strains, a laying hen loses yellow colour from the vent first, then the eye ring, beak and finally the shanks. Bright yellow shanks after months in the layer house mean she has probably not laid much at all.
The two-finger test
If you learn only one check, learn the pin-bone test. Hold the hen under one arm, breast facing out, and place your fingers between the two pubic bones below the vent. Two or more fingers and a soft abdomen means she is laying. One finger and a tight abdomen means she is not. With practice you can assess a bird in under ten seconds.
A scoring sheet you can use in the house
We find it easier to give each bird a quick score rather than trust memory. Any hen scoring 3 or less on this sheet goes into the cull pen for confirmation, unless she is clearly moulting and the flock is under 50 weeks.
| Check | Laying hen (score 2) | Doubtful (score 1) | Not laying (score 0) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comb and wattles | Large, red, warm | Medium, pinkish | Small, pale, dry |
| Vent | Wide, moist, oval | Medium, slightly moist | Small, dry, round |
| Pin-bone spread | 2+ fingers | 1.5 fingers | 1 finger or less |
| Abdomen depth | 3–4 fingers, soft | 2–3 fingers | Under 2 fingers, hard |
| Shank colour (yellow-skinned strains) | Bleached pale | Partly yellow | Bright yellow |
| Total score | 8–10: keep | 4–7: recheck in 7 days | 0–3: cull |
This sheet is an orientation tool, not a laboratory test. Confirm doubtful birds by isolating them in a marked pen for a week and counting eggs before you make a final decision.
When to cull and when to wait
Timing matters. A hen that has stopped laying at 30 weeks is a problem, because a good strain should be at or near peak. A hen taking a short pause at 55 weeks may simply be having a partial moult and will return to lay within three to four weeks. Age, season and the state of the whole flock all shape the decision.
We generally run a full hand-check at three points: around 25 to 28 weeks to remove birds that never came into lay, again around 45 to 50 weeks when the first drop-offs appear, and a final major cull at 70 to 75 weeks. Between those points, walk the house daily and pull out any bird that looks obviously off. Do not cull in the fortnight after a vaccination, a heat wave or a feed change, because the whole flock pauses at those moments and you risk removing good hens.
Reasons a young hen stops laying
Before you cull a whole group of young birds, ask why they stopped. Some causes are management faults that culling will not fix.
- Light. Layers need 14 to 16 hours of light. If your bulbs failed, or you never added evening light in the shorter days of the rainy season, the flock slows down. Our lighting programme guide explains the schedule.
- Calcium and protein shortfalls. A mash that was mixed cheaply, with too little soya or oyster shell, drops production across the board.
- Disease and parasites. Newcastle, infectious bronchitis, fowl typhoid, worms and red mites all knock production. Bronchitis in particular can permanently damage the oviduct, leaving "false layers" that look healthy, eat well and never lay again.
If the whole flock has dropped, fix the cause first. If only a scattered minority has stopped while their neighbours are laying, those individuals are your cull candidates.
Do not confuse a moult with a spent hen
A hen losing feathers around the neck and back at 50 to 60 weeks, with a comb that has faded only slightly, is probably moulting. She will usually return to lay in three to five weeks, and the eggs after a moult are often larger. Culling her is throwing away a productive bird. A spent hen shows the full picture: tiny comb, dry vent, tight pin bones and a hard abdomen.
How to sell culled hens in Ghana
A culled hen is not waste. Spent layers are in steady demand across Ghana as "old layer" or "hard chicken" for soups and stews, and many buyers prefer them for their firmer texture. Around Kasoa and the Accra markets, spent hens in fair body condition typically fetch somewhere between GH₵35 and GH₵60 each as orientation, with prices rising sharply in the weeks before Christmas and Easter. Selling 100 culls at even GH₵40 puts GH₵4,000 back into feed for the hens that are still working.
Sell culls in batches rather than singly, because traders pay better for a lorry-load, and withhold feed for eight to ten hours before sale so the buyer is not paying for a full crop. Dressing spent hens and selling by weight to chop bars can add margin, as we discuss in our article on dressed chicken and value addition.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know which hens are not laying without cameras or trap nests?
At what age should I cull my whole layer flock in Ghana?
Can a hen that has stopped laying start again?
Is it better to cull gradually or all at once?
What is the price of a spent layer in Ghana?
Start with hens bred to lay
Culling removes the idle hens, but the best defence is a flock that came into lay strongly in the first place. Agro Prime supplies vaccinated layer chicks and point-of-lay pullets from proven strains, hatched in Kasoa. WhatsApp or call +233 24 915 1503, email support@halaalfarmsghana.com, or book a visit to see the birds and plan your next batch.
