| Abstract: | A study was undertaken to determine the feasibility of restricting the feed intake of hens fed a medium density diet. Performance traits, egg quality, and mortality of individually caged commercial layers, were studied for twelve 28-day periods. The three treatments consisted of supplying 100 or 105 grams per hen per day and ad-libitum feeding. The influence of feed restriction on percent protein and fat of selected tissues was also studied. Body weight was significantly heavier for the as-libitum fed birds than for the restrictively fed groups. The hens fed ad-libitum tended to over-consume, gaining extra body weight, which was positively correlated with feed consumption and negatively correlated with feed efficiency. Hen-day egg production, egg size and mortality were not influence by feed restriction at either level. In general, mortality was found to be numerically the lowest for the hens fed 105 grams per day. Differences were not statistically significant. Feed efficiency was significantly improved by feed restriction. Exterior and interior egg quality were not influenced by feed restriction. Restrictively fed birds gave shell quality equal to ad-libitum birds. |
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