Performance of Laying Hens Fed Diets Containing Varying Levels of Brewers Dried Grain as Energy Source

A total of 100 twenty-two- week old Nera Black pullets were used in an eight- week long experiment to assess the effect of brewer’s dried grain (BDG) as energy source on performance of laying hens. Five experimental diets were formulated to represent T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 which contained 0. 25, 50, 75 and 100% brewer’s dried grain levels respectively. The laying hens were grouped into 5 treatments and each treatment group was further replicated four times in a completely randomized design. Feed and drinking water were supplied adlibitum and adequate sanitation and medication measures were also applied. Live weights of the birds were taken at the start of the experiment while final live weights were taken at the end of the experiment. Feed intake, egg weight, feed conversion ratios, hen-day egg production and cost benefit analysis were assessed. Results showed that hen-day egg production of 58.60 and 35.00% for birds on 75 and 100% brewers dried grain diets differed significantly (p0.05) T1 had the highest (