Effect of Certain Rearing and Laying House Environments on Performance of Incross Egg Production Type Pullets

Abstract

REARING and housing methods have been problems of considerable importance in the poultry industry for many years. Because the poultry industry has become increasingly competitive in recent years, the importance of producing eggs more efficiently has been emphasized. Rearing methods and housing during the laying period are vitally related to the cost of producing eggs. Range and confinement (floor pen) rearing have been used most extensively up to the present time. Recently, the development of the individual cage system, with attempts at modification, to lower housing costs have led to the use of colony cages for rearing of replacement pullets. Some experimental work has been done comparing range and confinement rearing of pullets, but no reference to rearing pullets in colony cages was found in the literature. Stevenson and Bryant (1944), Heuser et al. (1945), Johnson and Davidson (1957), Pepper et al. (1959), Winter (1957), Bailey et al. (1959b), and…