FRACTIONATION OF THE DAILY RATION FOR LAYING HENS: EFFECTS ON PRODUCTIVITY AND EGG QUALITY

Abstract

In this study 128 laying hens strain Dekalb Brown at 30 weeks of age were used, with the objective of evaluating the effect of fractionation daily ration on the performance and egg quality by means of the following variables: feed intake, feed conversion (kg / dz and kg / kg), egg medium weight, egg mass, Haugh unit, yolk index, shell thickness and shell percentage, egg production, yolk color, yolk percentage, albumen percentage and shell weight per unit surface area. The treatments were: T1 - all diet fed at 7:30; T2 - half the diet fed at 7:30 and half at 16:30; T3 - 1/3 of the diet fed at 7:30, 1/3 at 10:30, and 1/3 at 16:30; T4 - all diet fed at 16:30. The experimental design was completely randomized with four treatments and four replicates of eight birds each. There were not found a significant effect of treatments on the variables of performance and egg quality. Therefore, it was concluded that the fractionation of daily ration does not influence the performance and egg quality of laying hens.