Effect of ascorbic acid supplementation level to diets of indigenous Venda hens on egg production, hatchability and subsequent productivity of chicks

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of ascorbic acid supplementation level to the diets of indigenous Venda hens on egg production, hatchability and subsequent productivity of the chicks. The first part of the study determined the effect of ascorbic acid supplementation level to the diets of Venda hens on feed intake, egg production, egg weight, egg content, hatchability and chick hatch-weight. Seventy five Venda hens were randomly assigned to five dietary ascorbic acid treatment levels with three replications, each having five hens. A complete randomized design was used. The treatments were A 0 (0 ascorbic acid/kg DM feed), A 200 (200 mg ascorbic acid/kg DM feed), A 500 (500 mg ascorbic acid/kg DM feed), A 1000 (1000 mg ascorbic acid/kg DM feed), A 1500 (1500 mg ascorbic acid/kg DM feed). Ascorbic acid supplementation to the diets of indigenous Venda hens improved (P 0.05) on diet digestibility, metabolisable energy, nitrogen retention and mortality of their chickens. These results have implications on ration formulation for indigenous Venda hens. Keywords: Indigenous Venda chickens, ascorbic acid supplementation, optimum feed intake, feed conversion ratio, growth rate, live weight, mortalit