Table 4. The egg production, feed intake and body weight of laying hens subjected to various molting methods during three to six weeks of post-molting10)

Control MD WB CZn MZn Pooled SEM p-value
Mean BW
 Before refeeding (g/bird) 1,348c 1,430bc 1,533a 1,421bc 1,452ab 29.206 0.003
 After 6 wk of post molting (g/bird) 2,017a 1,794d 1,846cd 1,907bc 1,952ab 33.467 < 0.001
 Weight gain (%) 33.1a 20.7c 16.9d 25.4b 25.6b 1.244 < 0.001
Egg production (%)
 During 3–6 wk of post molting 88.7 84.4 81.2 90.2 88.8 2.516 0.158
Egg weight (g/egg)
 During 3–6 wk of post molting 66.5a 62.8b 64.5ab 64.2ab 64.0ab 0.749 0.032
Daily egg mass
 During 3–6 wk of post molting 58.9 53.5 53.2 57.8 55.6 1.711 0.106
 Feed intake for post molting (g/d/bird) 117.6 111.7 111.2 115.2 115.0 1.694 0.065
Data are least square of mean of eight replicates with two cages (five birds per cage).
Mean values with different superscripts within the same row differ significantly (p < 0.05).
Control, fasting group; MD, group received induced molting diet; WB, group received wheat bran based diet; CZn, group fed commercial layer diet with 8,000 ppm zinc; MZn, group fed induced molting diet with 8,000 ppm zinc.