THE USE OF MARBLE POWDER IN MOLTING PROGRAMS IN LAYING HENS

Molting is a common practice used by the commercial egg industry to rejuvenate flocks. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of marble powder on egg production performance of laying hens during premolt and postmolt periods. For this purpose, 69126 Hy-Line White 36 (W-36) laying hens (80 weeks old) were obtained from a commercial egg production farm. All of the chickens who lived to 90 weeks of age were subjected to the forced molting program. The time of the molting program was determined according to the body weight loss of the chickens. On the tenth day of the molting program, when hens in the group had lost an average of 23.10% of their body weight, feeding was resumed. Egg production performance was tracked for hens who lived to 100 weeks of age. It was observed that egg production (% hen-day) ranged from 42.69 to 69.51%, 0 to 51.59% and 0 to 74.68% in the premolt, molt and postmolt periods, respectively. The results of this study suggest that the addition of marble powder to forced molting programs of laying hens has a beneficial effect on egg production, particularly during the postmolt period.