Rearing and Maintaining Pullets on Controlled Lighting

IN RECENT years investigators studying the effects of light on the domestic fowl have obtained data from which they have concluded that a program of increasing daily photoperiod throughout the laying year would increase the total number of eggs laid. These and other researchers have also obtained data which led them to conclude that a program of light restriction during rearing when combined with a schedule of continuously increasing daylength during the laying period could be used to stimulate the total annual egg production. Lighting studies containing these and other findings have been reviewed by Biellier and Ostmann (1960), Smith and Noles (1963) and Siegel et al. (1963a). From 1959–1962 a study was conducted at the Georgia station to test the hypothesis that increasing the daily photoperiod during the laying year would stimulate total annual egg production. This hypothesis was not accepted (Smith and Noles, 1963). From 1960–1963…