1. Egg production during the artificial moulting and a new laying cycle of aged hens.
- Author
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Gjorgovska, Natasha, Filev, K., Levkov, Vesna, Kostadinov, T., and Jusufi, E.
- Subjects
HENS ,ANIMAL feeds ,AGRICULTURAL egg production ,EXPERIMENTAL groups ,CHICKENS - Abstract
There are several different methods of inducing artificial moulting of laying hens. One of the most practical methods applied during the last two decades is based on restriction of feed. This method, in practice is very popular and usually gives successful results. The eggs produced during the second egg laying cycle usually have larger weight than those during the first cycle, the quality of the shell is always much better than during the last phase of the first egg laying cycle, egg laying intensity reaches 92-94% of the intensity during the first cycle and the feed conversion is about 10% higher. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the egg production during the specific points of artificial moulting (preparing period, period of stress and period of recovering) and egg production during the new egg-laying cycle. The aged hens from two genotypes, ISA Brown 88 weeks aged and Hisex Brown 91 weeks aged, were used in the experiment. The egg laying Intensity during the preparing period was 60.00% in group 1 (ISA Brown) and 58.60% in group 2 (Hisex Brown). The egg laying decrease during the stress period, on the first day was up to 28.53% and 51.51% in groups 1 and 2, respectively. On the 8th day of the stress period the intensity of egg-laying was nearly to the level of zero in both experimental groups. The first egg of the new laying cycle appeared on 12th day after the stress period end. The second egg-laying cycle started 5 weeks after the ending of the fasting period at the level of 1.47% and 5.79% of the laying intensity in groups 1 and 2, respectively. The egg production during the second egg-laying cycle (308 days) was 148.8 and 210.8 eggs in groups 1 and 2, respectively. The genotype of the laying hens shows a large influence on the egg production during the second cycle. In this experiment it was noticed that the layers of the Hisex Brown reached higher egg production intensity than the ISA Brown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012