The Effect of Light Regimen and Feeding Time on Growth Performance and Mortality Rate in Broiler

Abstract

This study, aimed to determine the effects of different light regimen and day/night feeding on some performance criteria of 1104 broiler chickens during summer season. At the beginning of second week they were separated according to their sexes, and experiment had 2 × 6 replications. The 1st group, as control, received continuous lighting (daylight + lightening during night) and fed ad-libitum. The 2nd group was treated with continuous lighting too, but they had no access to feed between10:00 and 16:00 o‘clock during the last three weeks. The 3rd group was also exposed to continuous lighting but had no access to feed between10:00 am and 16:00 pm. Fourth group received continuous lighting but had no access to feed between 24:00 pm and 06:00 am. Fifth group received continuous lighting, but they were not fed between 24:00 pm and 06:00 am during the last three weeks of experimental process. Sixth group had no access to feed box during 24:00 pm and 06:00 am, when they had not been exposed to light as well. There were no notable differences in live weight gain of male and female birds for all treatment groups, and similarly differences among feed consumption and feed conversion ratios were not remarkable statistically regardless of the sexes of chickens. There were significant differences in hot-cold carcass yields of the 3rd and 6th treatment groups for male birds and 6th treatment group for female birds. The differences for carcass weights of male birds were statistically significant and 3rd and 6th treatments groups were tend to be relatively higher than the other treatment groups. The differences among treatment groups for carcass weights of female birds, however, were not significant and similarly the effects of the treatments on the mortality rate was found to be in significant for same birds. Lightning (24h) and feeding ad - libitum affected the performance of the birds adversely, whilst restricted feeding and lightning process reduced the yield-loss the animals during the summer season.