The impact of various calcium sources offered to Arabic hens during their early-laying stage on calcium consumption and egg production.

Abstract

The research was conducted to calculate feed, calcium (Ca) intake, Ca requirements, and egg production for Arabic hens during the early egg-laying period. A total of 135 30-week-old Silver female Arabic pullets were randomly allocated to one of three treatments with five replicate cages with a semi-scavenging system of nine pullets per cage in a completely randomized design and allowed to choose Ca from limestone and oyster shells. As a control (T1), pullets were only given a complete feed with Ca and phosphorus percentages according to Hy-line International in 2018. Other treatment feeds were control feed without limestone fed with a combination of limestone (T2) or oyster shell (T3) separately. The treatments had no effect (p > 0.05) on feed, grit and Ca intake (gm/bird/week), egg weight (gm), egg mass, egg production (%), and feed efficiency, but had an effect (p < 0.05) on Ca concentration (%). Ca concentration was the same at T1 and T3, and both were higher than at T2. The female Arabic chickens could fulfill Ca requirements by selecting from different sources of Ca. Limestone is better than the oyster shell as a source of Ca. The Ca requirement for Arabic hens in the early laying period based on the Ca concentration of the feed intake is sufficient at around 3.64% since producing the same number of egg production and heavier egg weight compared to a higher Ca level.