Effect of Controlled Lighting on Production Characters in the Fowl

Abstract

KING¹ recently reported that a combination of restricted lighting during rearing and increasing lighting during the laying season results in increased egg production in laying pullets. Morris and Fox² have suggested that sexual maturity is influenced by change of length of day rather than by the absolute amount of light the birds receive during rearing. They have already published interim results³ of an experiment which supports this contention. Their experiment also shows that decreasing lighting during the rearing of pullets hatched in December delays maturity, increases weight of eggs, but does not lower total egg production during the first sixteen weeks of lay.