Egg Production
Age at first egg and average number of eggs per hen is displayed in Table 4.3. Birds under LED-R light had a significant delay in age at first egg compared to birds under CFL and
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incandescent (p < 0.0001). However the average age at first egg in each light treatment occurred between 19 and 20woa when birds were under 11-12 hours of light, indicating that regardless of light treatment, birds began maturing before reaching a stimulatory photoperiod. There was no significant difference between rows within each light treatment (I: p = 0.5911; C: p = 0.1461; L: p = 0.0569).
Egg production was measured over a 52 weeks period (14-66 woa) and is presented in Figure 4.2. Overall there was no significant difference between light treatments (p = 0.2939) and there was no significant difference in total cumulative number of eggs per hen (p = 0.8256; Table 4.3B). However, production levels did fluctuate over time and, at 19 woa birds under LED-R had significantly lower egg production than both incandescent and CFL light (I = 34.8 + 3.73 %; C = 38.4 + 3.95 %; L = 19.0 + 3.04 %),); at 20 woa, birds under LED-R had significantly lower production than birds maintained under CFL light (I = 66.82 + 3.91 %; C = 75 + 3.21 %; L = 58.3 + 3.90 %), and at 24 woa, birds under LED-R had significantly higher level of production than both incandescent and CFL (I = 95.8 + 1.55 %; C = 96.1 + 1.00 %; L = 101.6 + 1.42 %).