The effects on egg production performance with water
hyacinth as duck feed are shown in Table 3. The feed
intake of the experimental group was 5.86%, significantly
greater (P < 0.01) than the control group (CK). The egg
laying rate of the experimental group was 9.79%, also
significantly greater (P < 0.01) than the control group
(CK). The egg weights of the experimental and control
groups were significantly different (P < 0.05) at 65.59 and
64.08 g, respectively. The feed conversion ratios of the two
groups were not significantly different.
Because feeding egg ducks with water hyacinth enhanced
the daily feed intake, it increased the level of
feed digestion and utilization, thus increasing their egg
production performance. Water hyacinth is a rich source
of protein, vitamins and minerals and, in particular, it
contains unknown nutrition factors, which may stimulate
the duck’s reproductive function. If the ducks are fed with
water hyacinth every day, it not only promotes the egg
laying rate, but also increases the feed utilization rate (Fan,
2003). In this experiment, the egg laying rate and egg
weight were significantly increased after the egg ducks
were fed with a quota of water hyacinth. Many reports
indicated that, along with enhancing the daily grain crude
protein level, egg production performance also increased
a certain amount (Nardone and Valfre, 1999).