EFFECTS OF POST-HATCH FEEDING INTERVALS ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND APPARENT NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY OF BROILER CHICKENS

Abstract

Post-hatchfeeding intervals effects on the performance and nutrient digestibility of Hubbard broiler chickens was carried out using two hundred and eighty (280) Hubbard strain of broiler chicks. The birds were weighed and randomly distributed into seven (7) treatments of four (4) replicates each with ten (10) birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. The birds in Treatment 1 were fed 8h, birds in Treatment 2 were fed 10h, birds in Treatment 3 were fed 12h, birds in Treatment 4 were fed 24h, birds in Treatment 5 were fed 36h, birds in Treatment 6 were fed 48h and birds in Treatment 7 were fed 60h post-hatch respectively. The experiment lasted for 8 weeks. Apparent nutrient digestibility trial was also carried out at the 8th week of the experiment.Results shows that the final weight (1901.33g) was highest in Treatment 3 while the lowest value (1665.59g) was obtained in Treatment 7. Similar trend was observed for the daily weight gain. The highest daily feed intake (77.86g) was obtained in Treatment 1 while the lowest value (64.15g) obtained in Treatment 5. The feed: gain ratio value obtained in Treatment 1 is higher (2.54) than the values obtained across other Treatment (T2 – T7 and the lowest value (2.05) was obtained in Treatment 4 which is similar to 2.05 and 2.10 obtained in Treatments 2 and 3respectively. It was concluded, that post hatch feeding has significant effect on the performance characteristics and treatment 3 (Feeding 12hrs after hatching) had signicatly higher final weight but had no significant effect on nutrient digestibility except nitrogen free extract