PERFORMANCE OF EGG LAYING HENS SUPPLEMENTED WITH LOCALLY AVAILABLE FEED

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feed supplementation on feed intake, feed conversion efficiency, egg production, egg quality and profitability of Bovans Brown (BB) under farmer’s management. Randomized Complete Block Design was used with 4 treatments and 5 replications each. A total of 100 layers with uniform body weight (1494.8 g/hen) and age (six months) were blocked randomly into 20 farmers each with 5 birds and allocated randomly in to one of the 4 dietary treatments. The crude protein (CP) and metabolizable energy (ME) content of treatment rations ranged 12.5-16.87% and 2245-2909.51kcal/ kg DM, respectively. The amount of feed consumed was determined by obtaining the difference between the quantity of feed offered and the quantity of feed leftover. There was no significant difference in DMI (p>0.05) of hens among treatments. In contrast, there was significant difference (p<0.05) among DWG, HDEP, egg weight and FCE of supplemented hens than the controlled ones. However, hens fed on T2 performed lower HDEP and FCE than hens fed on T3 and T4. Except albumen quality and yolk color, the performance of the production and the quality traits of eggs were affected by feed supplementation. Therefore, egg laying hens supplemented with 16.87% CP and 2752 kcal/kg ME ration performed better egg production without affecting its quality.