ILEIA Newsletter Vol. 11 No. 1 p. 28

Huevos de amor

Harm de Vries

"Huevos de Amor" or "Love Eggs", are eggs produced by local chickens which are kept on free range. The chickens are kept together with a cock, and that is why the farmers call these eggs "huevos de amor". What are the benefits of using hybrid layers as well as local hens? A report from Nicaragua.

Lorena Urbina and Marcos Cisnero live in Muy-Muy, Nicaragua. Their village is situated in the centre of Nicaragua, in the semi-humid area, with a rainfall of 1520 mm distributed over 8 months from May to December/January. Average daily temperature is 25ºC. The major activity in the area is milk and beef production. Small-scale farmers produce maize, beans, bananas, root crops and … eggs.

The people in Muy-Muy value love eggs higher than eggs coming from chicken industries. Love eggs taste better. They have dark yellow yolks because the hens pick a large variety of leaves, grasses and other backyard scrap. Almost every household in Muy-Muy has chickens on free range. Mostly women look after them. Egg production of local chickens in this area is quite high. They achieve a production level of about 30% (3 eggs per 10 hens per day), counting all adult female chickens. Only about 10% of the eggs is kept for hatching, 50% is sold and 30% is consumed.

The chickens sleep in a tree, of which the stem sometimes is covered with a piece of zinc against predators. Management includes maize feeding, selection of hens for hatching, production and culling. Sometimes nests are provided. About 60% of the incubated eggs hatch and losses amongst young chicks reach a level of 40%.

Yellow yolks

Marcos and Lorena also keep chickens on their farm. They have local chickens, but the majority of the eggs are produced by hybrid layers, dual purpose Black sex linked, also kept on free range together with cocks. These "love eggs" have the same dark yellow yolks. Keeping hybrid layers on free range has been reported before. Egg production is very interesting, reaching 50 to 60% level. The hens of Marcos and Lorena had an average of 70% during the first three months of laying.

Many people, hearing of the introduction of hybrid layers to the free range system, fear that the layers will be affected by diseases or parasites. In fact, these problems do not really occur, while problems with coccidiosis (disease caused by internal parasite) are far less than in pens. Losses by predators or by theft occur, just as with local chickens. It is good to minimise these losses, e.g. by building a good night pen.

Feeding costs are much lower in a free range system, which makes it more attractive than completely closed pens. Closed pens make people dependent on the supply of concentrates, which increases feeding costs. The fact that scavenging layers tend to balance their diet of supplied grains themselves with what they find in the backyard is very attractive.

The layers of Marcos and Lorena are fed with maize, regardless of the quality. Any on-farm price for the maize would be arbitrary. Actually, one reason for keeping chickens is to capitalise on harvest wastes and inferior grains. However, to give some idea, first quality maize market prices are about 0.8 to 2.7 Cordoba (1 US $ = C$ 7) per kilo, depending on the season. An average price for maize of C$ 1.50 would mean a price of C$ 0.12 for a portion of 80 grams of maize, which is enough to achieve a 60% laying average. This would mean a cost price per egg of C$ 0.20, which is half of the selling price.

Eggs of hybrid layers weigh more (56 g) than the eggs of the local chickens (40 g). The local market, however, does not pay for extra size. Another interesting aspect in producing eggs is that maize is produced by men. Decisions on how to spend the revenues is taken either by the man or by both man and woman. Selling eggs is a woman’s business, and she decides how she spends that money.

Buying or breeding

Hybrid layers have to be purchased. This makes farmers quite dependent. Besides that, buying pullets needs capital investment, but not for Marcos and Lorena. They cross there black hybrid layers with a Leghorn/Warren crossbred cock. The eggs of this cross are bred by local hens and provide them with improved layers in the future. They are certain the offspring is going to produce, because the sisters of the crossbred cock, scavenging on free range at a friend’s farm, produce just as well as their Warren mothers. These Warren mothers are also kept on free range.

Although a Leghorn is considered too light, former mentioned crossbreds of Leghorn/Warren are nice dual purpose chickens. The Warren and the Black hybrid layers are even heavier than the local chickens. Crossing local hens with cocks of improved breeds results in offspring that continues to be broody. This is necessary to produce chicks, but a problem when the objective is to produce eggs. Marcos and Lorena solved this problem by having hybrid layers produce the eggs and local hens brood.

It is not clear to the author how lack of calcium supply influences egg production. Earlier experiences show that layers of course need extra calcium to achieve high production levels. On the farm however, on free range, effects of lack of calcium are often obscured by other problems like lack of feed. Lorena and Marcos are only feeding egg shells. Other farmers do not supply extra calcium and according to their reports layers continue to produce. It might be, that the high amounts of lime used in households to prepare maize for tortillas contributes to a sufficient calcium supply here in Nicaragua. However, this remains a subject to be studied.

Harm de Vries, SNV, AP 3534, Managua, Nicaragua.

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