Understanding our data
Laying rate, fertility, hatching: how we measure and publish our farm data, and how to read it.
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Because ours are measured and many others are copied. Our figures come out of our own records, under our conditions of keeping, egg storage and incubation — 3 complete seasons, breed by breed. A figure found elsewhere often goes back to an old average, passed from site to site until no one knows where it came from. That said, our values remain indicative for anyone keeping birds differently: the same breed does not lay the same for everyone.
We currently publish 3 seasons of records, covering 40 breeds. The history is kept season by season, which allows a line to be followed over time rather than read as an isolated snapshot. The distinction matters: one season may be marked by a hot summer or by a change of breeding birds; it is the sequence that gives the figures meaning.
Daily, run by run and batch by batch. It is not a monthly reading spread out after the fact: eggs laid, eggs set, candling results, hatches and sexing are all entered day by day. It is that regularity which makes reliable weekly curves possible, where an annual average flattens everything.
Eggs laid, bird numbers, eggs set, candling results, hatches, sexing, movements into the rearing house and departures to our partners. Every stage of a bird's journey is recorded, from collecting the egg to its allocation. The published rates — laying, fertility, hatch — are worked out from those records, never estimated.
It is the ratio between the number of eggs collected and the number of hens present over the period concerned. Recorded daily and then set against the week, it gives the curve you see in the comparison tool. A rate of 50 % means a hen lays on average every other day. It is a far more telling indicator than an annual total, because it can be read against the age of the breeding hens.
Three distinct measures, and confusing them distorts every reading. Fertility is the share of eggs set that prove fertile. Hatch is the share of those fertile eggs that actually produce a chick. Hatchability combines the two: it is the share of chicks obtained across all eggs set. A breed may therefore show excellent hatch and only average hatchability if its fertility is low — which is why we publish all three.
A batch groups birds of the same origin and the same date, followed together. It is identified from the moment the eggs are collected, then tracked through the hatchery, through rearing, and up to allocation among our partners. It is what makes real traceability possible: knowing where a bird comes from, which breeding birds it descends from, what it has received — and picking up early on an anomaly confined to one batch.
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Only in part, and that should be said plainly. Our figures describe our lines under our conditions: our feed, our climate, our management. At your place, with different feed and a different hatching season, the same birds will give different results. What our data bring you is a reliable order of magnitude and, above all, a basis for comparing breeds measured under identical conditions.
Because no season is a copy of the last: the breeding birds are neither the same nor the same age, the weather differs, fresh blood may have been brought in. That is precisely the value of keeping the history — an isolated variation means nothing, a trend across several seasons says a great deal. The comparison tool lets you follow a breed season by season.
Select up to three breeds to overlay their weekly laying curves over the same period, or follow a single breed from one season to the next. Look at the shape of the curve as much as at its height: the rise, the peak, the width of the plateau and the decline tell you things an annual total wipes out entirely. The table also gives the figures breed by breed.
Since the beginning of Elsanor: we started with spreadsheets, then an intranet system. Digitalisation began in 2024 and has been complete since 2026: every run and every batch is now tracked digitally on a daily basis. It is not window dressing — it is the working tool that produces the figures published on this site.
Because openness is our best proof. On most sites, the performance quoted for a breed consists of general values taken from books or from other sites: unverifiable, and identical everywhere. Publishing records from our own lines commits us — anyone can compare, season after season. It is more demanding than quoting a flattering figure, and it is the only way to be credible.
It is a projection over the full spring laying period, worked out from the peak rate measured in our own runs. It answers the practical question: how many eggs a week can I expect at the best moment. It is not to be confused with the annual total, which takes in the moult and the winter slowdown. Both figures are useful, but they do not say the same thing.
By entering data daily at source rather than reconstructing it afterwards, and through a system developed in house for our own flock. Every stage is recorded as it happens, which makes inconsistencies apparent quickly. We also state how many seasons each figure rests on: a value from a single season does not carry the same weight as an average built over several.
It is the percentage of hens laying an egg on a given day: a hundred hens producing sixty eggs in the day show a rate of 60 %. It is measured across a group and over a period, never on an individual bird — it is an average, not a performance. The value of the rate is that it can be compared: between breeds, between seasons, between ages. Our curves are built breed by breed from daily records, which lets the rise into lay, the peak and the decline be followed rather than a bare annual total.
The laying rate is a snapshot: it says how many hens are laying at a given moment. Eggs per year is a running total: it adds up a whole year of production. One is read from a curve, the other from a single figure. Two breeds showing the same annual total may have very different curves — one steady, the other with a sharp peak followed by a collapse. That is why we publish both: the total to compare at a glance, the curve to understand what lies behind it.
Three moments can be read at a glance. The rise, first: it begins at point of lay and shows how quickly the line comes into production. Then the peak — its height indicates the potential, its width the ability to hold that level. Finally the decline, whose slope says a great deal: a slow descent is worth more than a spectacular summit followed by a collapse. Always compare curves from the same season: a change of building or of management shows up immediately in the trace.
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