Production performance of caged layers under different environmental temperatures

The objective of the present experiment was set to investigate the effects of temperature variations on egg production, feed intake, number of cracked eggs, egg shell strength, egg weight, body weight, mortality rates, and manure moisture content in caged layers. The experiment was conducted in three different environmental temperatures, namely cool, temperate, and warm regions. The mean temperatures obtained from these three regions were measured as 21.4 °C, 22.6 °C, and 27.6 °C, respectively during the experiment. As the environmental temperatures increased egg production was decreased. With increasing environmental temperature from 21.4 °C to 27.6 °C, feed intake of layers decreased from 113.3 g/hen to 96.5 g/hen. The relationships with environmental temperature, egg production and feed consumption were significant (P < .01). Increasing of environmental temperatures resulted in lower egg weights. An adverse relationship between temperature and number of cracked egg was observed. Body weights were higher in the cool region in comparison to warm region. © Verlag Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co.