A commercial layer operation in Ashanti was losing nearly one in four birds annually. Fourteen weeks after our audit, mortality had dropped to 4%. Here is exactly what we changed.
When we first visited the 2,400-bird layer farm in Ashanti in January 2025, the owner quoted a mortality rate of “about 20 percent.” Our first week of records put it closer to 23%. Causes were layered: poor biosecurity at the entry point, a vitamin-deficient layer mash being cut with maize offal, and a vaccination schedule three weeks behind the recommended calendar. The flock was also overcrowded — floor space was running at 0.28 m² per bird against the recommended 0.37 m².
We intervened on three fronts simultaneously. Biosecurity: footbaths installed, visitors restricted to a single entry point, and a full fumigation of the house before restocking the youngest cohort. Nutrition: we worked with the feed compounder to restore the full methionine and lysine specification and removed the maize offal dilution. Vaccination: we back-dated a Newcastle and IB booster and put the farm on a 12-week forward calendar. We also removed the 200 weakest birds in week two — a painful but necessary cull that immediately improved floor density and feed conversion for the rest.
By week six, weekly mortality had fallen from 38 birds to 11. By week fourteen, the rolling monthly rate had reached 4.1% — inside the commercial benchmark of 5% for a flock of this age. Egg production climbed from 61% to 79% HD. Feed conversion improved by 18%. The owner’s input cost per tray of eggs dropped by GH₵ 4.20 — on 1,800 surviving birds laying at 79%, that is a meaningful monthly gain. The lesson: mortality at scale is almost never one problem. It is three or four small failures compounding each other.
