Performance of Egg Production Stocks Under Three Cage Densities

Abstract

NUMEROUS studies have been conducted to compare the performance of caged chickens maintained at different population densities (Shupe and Quisenberry, 1961; Bramhall et al., 1966; Logan, 1965; Lowe and Hewang, 1964; Moore et al., 1965; Magruder and Nelson, 1966; Owings et al., 1967; Marr et al., 1967; Tower et al., 1967). Although higher population densities per cage generally decreased the number of eggs per bird and increased mortality, only limited information is available to indicate whether strains differ in their ability to adapt to multiple bird cages. Cook and Dembnicki (1966) and Wilson et al. (1967) observed significant interactions for strain by cage type. The objective of the current investigation was to evaluate genotype by environment (strain by cage density) interactions when commercial egg production stocks are caged at different population densities. PROCEDURE Six commercial egg production stocks were evaluated in one-, two-, and five-bird cage units. There were 3600…