July 25, 2025

UK Egg Producer’s White-Egg Cage-Free Debut is a Success

After 15 years of producing brown eggs, UK free range egg farmer Alex Woollam took the decision to switch to white egg production and thanks in no small part to Hy-Line’s W-80, it’s a decision he hasn’t regretted. Alex, who has 94,000 layers, explains why he made the change to white. “Looking at the data on the white birds it was clear they were prolific layers with an extended laying cycle, very feed efficient and easy to manage. The ease of management was a big consideration, we have six sheds to get around with limited labour and a small problem can quickly become a big problem. Labour availability is an ongoing challenge so if we have a bird that does the right thing, it make life so much easier.”

As for the aspects that make white layers easier to manage, Alex says it was evident from day one. “On unloading the birds they went up into the system in a way brown birds don’t. They hadn’t been aviary reared, which is not uncommon for pullets in the UK, yet they very quickly adapted to our multi-tier laying houses. The first day the floor was covered with birds but as the lights started dimming they were quickly into the system, effortlessly reaching the upper tiers. They also found the nests easily.”

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing, with Alex experiencing some ‘crowding’ in the first flocks but he is quick to acknowledge the help and support he had from the Hy-Line technical team, both in the UK and internationally. “There’s such a wealth of experience that can be tapped into, and with the advice we received we managed our way out of the situation.”

In fact, it was this technical support that steered Alex toward the W-80 when making a decision on breed choice. “We’d had excellent support from Hy-Line when we had brown birds and this was a major consideration when choosing which white bird to opt for. Our first intake of whites, which was in October 2023, included a competitor breed. However, such was the performance of the W-80s, we’ve gone 100% W-80 this time around.” Alex cites help from Hy-Line International Nutritionist Marcus Kenny as being instrumental in the performance success. “Marcus has such a global perspective and has been involved feeding W-80s elsewhere in the world, where white birds are more prevalent. It’s all a bit new to us in the UK and his help in formulating rations has been invaluable.”

Alex’s first flocks of W-80s were taken to 94 weeks, a depletion age based somewhat on the unknown, he explains: “At the time, we really weren’t sure how long we could take them on and 94 weeks was significantly longer than we’d been taking brown birds to. It was our first time with whites so we wanted to make sure we got it right but in hindsight we should have gone to over 100 weeks. When we had brown birds, as a bit of a target, if we could cling on to 90% until 60 weeks we were on to an absolute barnstormer, whereas with the W-80s, they’d just dropped short of 90% by 90 weeks. So that’s where my new target is, over 90% at 90 weeks with the latest flocks and hopefully with what we’ve learned we’ll be able to do that.” According to Alex, late lay shell quality was impressive resulting in a low level of seconds, and achieving egg size wasn’t a challenge. “We got up to over 65 grams in late lay. That was higher than where we needed for the contract we were on but again, it was a learning curve and we’ll be aiming for lower egg weight with the current flocks.”

Alex’s flock did 475 eggs per hen housed to 94 weeks and if they had been taken to 100 weeks, they were on target to comfortably pass the magic figure of 500 eggs. With Alex now being a ‘white bird convert’, we’re sure he’ll be surpassing this figure going forward!

Extraordinary Flock Results:

Genetics: Hy-Line W-80
Location: UK
Housing Type: Aviary
Outstanding Results to 94 weeks:

42 weeks > 95% rate of lay
62 weeks > 90% rate of lay
475 hen-housed eggs (+30 eggs vs. Hy-Line standard)
93% livability
30.25 cumulative egg mass
FCR: 132.5 g of feed/egg and 2.2 kg of feed/kg of egg mass