Controlled Feeding of Laying Chickens

IT HAS long been a common practice with many commercial poultrymen to mechanically restrict the amount of feed to growing pullets in an attempt to delay maturity. Although there are few reports in the scientific literature on this subject, commercial operators have actually been ahead of scientific investigators in that it was practiced in the field before any scientific reports appeared. Schneider et al. (1955) and Milby and Sherwood (1956) are among those that have made reports in the scientific literature on this subject. Different workers are not completely agreed on the overall value of such programs but all have agreed that such systems do actually delay sexual maturity and change the pattern of egg production. With the apparent success of controlled feeding of growing birds it was only natural that some poultrymen should express an interest in the possibility of improving results with chickens of laying age, particularly with …