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Hulless oats are of interest as an alternative to corn and wheat in organic poultry diets because they offer potential to enhance agrobiodiversity and produce locally grown feeds both within and outside of corn-growing regions. Hulless oats are easily certified GM-free and have demonstrated nutritional value for poultry. A feeding study was carried out to examine: (i) the effects of substituting corn, wheat or a fraction of each with hulless oats in organic layer diets, and (ii) the importance of oat variety in feed performance. Productivity and economic implications in the context of current organic markets were explored. Experimental diets included an oat-free control, Oat + corn, Oat + wheat and Oat + corn + wheat, each of which was formulated with three hulless oat varieties, AC Gwen, Paul and Streaker. All but the control diet included oats at 200 g kg−1. Three hundred Hy-Line Brown hens were individually caged and allocated to diets in groups of 10 in a completely randomized design with three replicates per diet. Experimental diets were fed between 24 and 32 weeks of age during which time hen health, egg production and egg quality indicators were monitored. Results indicated that hulless oats had no negative effects on hen health and productivity. On the basis of current organic feed ingredient prices and an estimated cost of USD 533 mt−1 for production of oats in the study region, oat containing diets were more expensive than the oat-free control. In an evaluation of revenue based on current market prices for organic eggs, the additional cost was completely offset by larger egg sizes of hens on oat containing diets. There were no major differences associated with oat variety.

US organic poultry producers are under pressure to find feed alternatives to corn and wheat. Hulless oats offer advantages such as wide geographic adaptation of the plant and high concentrations of protein and oil in the grain. They have shown considerable potential in experimental work as a feed grain for poultry, but more research is needed into their influence on the sensory and nutritional properties of eggs. In this study, hulless oats were substituted for corn or wheat at 200 g kg−1 in diets fed to Hy-Line Brown hens and eggs were sampled for sensory evaluation after 8 weeks. Discrimination tests of blended and baked egg samples found evidence of difference between eggs from oat-based diets and those from the oat-free control (p < 0.05 for eggs from an oat-corn diet, p < 0.01 for eggs from an oat-wheat diet). Acceptance tests of similar samples showed that eggs from the oat-wheat diet were significantly less liked than control eggs for their texture (p < 0.01) and response to cooking (p < 0.01), while eggs from the oat-corn diet were somewhat less liked. Yolk weight was greater (p < 0.05) in control eggs (34.1 g) than eggs from oat-corn (31.6 g) or oat-wheat (31.2 g) diets, leading to smaller yolk proportion in the oat-fed eggs. Fatty acid profile differences across treatments were not of nutritional significance, and no evidence was found that the feeding of hulless oats improved storage properties of eggs. In this study, modifying the carbohydrate source in layer diets was shown to change textural properties of cooked eggs in a way that was perceptible to untrained consumers, probably by reducing the yolk proportion. This finding was not commercially relevant owing to small effect size, and results overall add to existing evidence that hulless oats can be fed to poultry at a moderate proportion of the diet with no negative effect on consumer acceptability of eggs. Regardless of the small effect size, however, findings are interesting from the food chemistry perspective because they provide novel evidence of how the thermal properties of eggs can be altered by a change in hen dietary carbohydrate source.