Korean Journal of Agricultural Science ISSN:2466-2402(Print) 2466-2410(Online) 농업과학연구

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the influence of providing laying hens with extra feed on egg production and egg quality parameters. A total of 480 laying hens (38-weeks old), were divided into five treatment groups (eight replicate cages/treatment and 12 layer/replicate) according to their starting body weight (1.98 ± 0.05 kg) in this four-week feeding trial. Five different feed allowances of the same diet (105, 110, 115, 120, and 125 g·day-1·bird-1) were assigned to layers. Daily inspections of remaining feed (around 0.1g) and layer mortality (0%) showed no harmful impact of supplying extra feed to layers. Providing 120 and 125 g of feed per day to layers resulted in the highest final body weight, large-egg ratio, and improved yolk color among all treatment groups. Layers receiving 125 g of feed daily had the highest egg weight, but the highest egg production ratio was observed in layers receiving 110 g of feed/day. The additional supply of feed did not have a negative impact on the productive performance or egg quality of the layers. The provision of 125 g feed per day led to an improvement of large-egg ratio, egg weight, and yolk color, but likely led to obesity of the layers, which manifested as an increase in body weight and a decline in the egg production ratio. We concluded that 110 grams of feed was the proper quantity after taking into consideration the significance of the health of the laying hen to the overall production performance.