The effect of housing on layerchicken's productivity in the 3-tier cage

Abstract: The productivity of layer-chickens in the different tiers of 3-tier cages using percentage Hen-day production ( % HDP) in two contiguous poultry houses with different roofing materials was investigated for 10-weeks between January and March. The mean % HDP for tier 1, the lowest tier was found to be more than tier 2 while tier 3 was the least in House A. In House B, % HDP was highest in tier 2 and least in tier 1. On the average, House B had a better productivity ( % HDP) than House A. From the factorial analysis of the 10 weeks data, highly significant (P < 0.01) differences between the % HDP for the two Houses were obtained as opposed to the non significant (P> 0.05) difference among the three tiers. The house-tier interaction significantly influenced % HDP in weeks 2, 5, 6 and 10. It was concluded that the better productivity of the chickens in House B than House A was ascribed to the effect of the asbestos roofing sheets in House B which generally reduced the heat stress on the birds with resultant better mean weekly egg production. Key words: Housing, layer-chicken, productivity, 3-tier cag