Further Studies of Diet Composition on Egg Weight

MANY factors have been reported to influence the weight of eggs. Recently energy level of the diet and unidentified factor(s) have been included in these factors. Increasing the energy content of the diet has been reported to increase egg weight (Berg and Bearse, 1957), however, energy restriction, by limiting feed intake, has been found to reduce egg weights (Singsen et al., 1959; Combs et al., 1961; and Donaldson and Millar, 1962). Jensen et al. (1958) found that an unidentified factor was necessary to obtain maximum egg size; and that yellow corn was a source of this factor. Harms and Waldroup (1961) reported that egg weights were significantly lighter when hens were fed a diet containing 735 Calories of productive energy per pound as compared to eggs from hens fed diets containing 900 Calories per pound. Increased egg weights were obtained by increasing the energy content of the diet, and yellow…