Fig. 1

Schematic overview of individual trait measurements: resilience indicators, egg production, and natural antibody levels. Top bar shows the age of the individuals in weeks with relevant time points during the production cycle. Individual caging after rearing takes place between 15 and 19 weeks of age. Traditionally, breeding programs of laying hens have focused on egg production between 25 and 83 weeks of age, but currently, they focus on prolonging the egg production cycle (to more than 100 weeks). Therefore, the relevant periods in this study are split up into: the full production cycle (i.e. all eggs from start to end), the early production cycle (i.e. from start to 25 weeks of age), the 'traditional' production cycle (i.e. 25 to 83 weeks of age), and the time period after the 'traditional' production cycle (i.e. 83 weeks of age to end)