Zweinutzungshühner als Alternative zur Tötung von Eintagsküken

The culling of day-old male layer chicks is a constant issue in the animal welfare discussion. The dual purpose chicken is an alternative. In this test cockerels from dual purpose breeds were compared to fast and slow growing chicken. An additional fattening period of at least two weeks is necessary to achieve the final weight of 2.3 kg. Due to a decline in feed conversion approximately 20% additional feed energy is necessary to produce 1 kg lean meat. The laying performance reached an acceptable number of 260 eggs per year. An insufficient egg weight is the reason for a higher amount of S-grade eggs. Again 20% additional feed energy per kg egg mass is necessary compared to specialized breeds