Observation on the growth of hubbard parent stock broilers raised for 20 weeks by manipulating the feed supply under restricted feeding regime

A study was carried out to monitor the effect of feed manipulation on the growth and development of male and female line Hubbard broiler parent stock reared under tropical open sided poultry house without any form of cooling system or any temperature regulating mechanism. A total of 255 females and 105 males for the male line and 360 females and 150 males for the female line were used. The birds were fed a normal soya cake/groundnut cake and maize based broiler starter ration of 2900kcal/kg ME and 20% CP and a grower ration containing 2650kcal/kg ME with 16% CP as stipulated by the Hubbard rearing guide. The birds were fed ad libitum for the first 2 weeks and thereafter placed on restricted feeding in line with the standard rearing guideline provided by the Hubbard breeding company for optimum growth and development. It was observed that the body weights of the birds did not differ much from the standard body weight expected at 20 weeks even though they were reared in the normal tropical open sided poultry house without sophisticated modern facilities. This shows that feed manipulation can be used to achieve desired weight in broiler parent stock rearing. Keywords: Feed manipulation, parent stock, open sided house, growth performance, broilers