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The effect of light color on the egg quality of turkey breeder hens in individual cages during 20 weeks of egg laying was investigated. Hens were photostimulated at 32 weeks of age with blue, green, or red restricted wavelength light or incandescent light. The light intensity was equalized on the basis of the number of photons (3.0 × 1014 /sec/cm2) in each light treatment. Physical characteristics of turkey eggs were measured on daily egg collections during the 160 days after photostimulation. Egg weights from hens receiving red light were significantly (P<.05) and consistantly heavier throughout the laying period than those from the other light treatment groups. Weight of albumen and percent albumen were also significantly greater in eggs of hens receiving red and incandescent light treatments. In the red and incandescent light treatments, albumen weight significantly increased during the laying period, while in blue and green light treatments, there was no significant change. As a result, percent albumen in the blue and green treatments decreased with age while remaining constant in red light during the 20-week study period. Yolk weight was significantly heavier in the incandescent than all other treatments. Shell weight decreased over the laying period in all treatments. Percent shell quality and shell weight per unit surface area were significantly higher in blue and green than in the red and incandescent light treatments. It was concluded that the wavelength of light can affect egg quality of turkey hens.
Pyrzak et al. (Tue,) studied this question.