Advances in the Nutrition and Management O F the Male and Female Broiler Breeder

Poultry nutritionists have based the feed requirements of broiler breeder hens on the principles designed for the feeding of commercial laying pullets because of the l ack of information specific to these birds. The practice of restricting the feed intake of broiler breeders during both the rearing and the laying periods differs from the that of feeding commercial pullets, and was introduced as a necessity because of the rapid growth rate of broilers, but there is still debate about the reason for the benefit derived from this practice. The extent to which feed should be restricted; the optimum time of release from the restriction programme; the basis on which the amino acid requirements for maintenance and for egg output are calculated; and the optimum intake of energy at various stages of the that require further defi produ nitive .ction period, arc all as experimentation. Some pects 0 recent f broiler nformat . .