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Light Intensity and Housing for Pigeons1
755
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND YIELD
and Procedures of Statistics. McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc. Summers, J. D., S. J. Slinger and G. C. Ashton, 1965. The effect of dietary energy and protein on carcass composition with a note on a method for estimating carcass composition. Poultry Sci. 44: 501-509. Wabeck, C. J., 1973. Breast muscle tenderness of male broilers reared in cages and floor pens. Poultry Sci. 52: 2098-2099. Wabeck, C. J., and L. H. Littlefield, 1972. Bone strength of broilers reared in floor pens and cages
having different bottoms. Poultry Sci. 51: 897-899. Welch, S. W., P. F. Metcalfe and R. W. Wesley, 1971. Broilers in cages. World's Poultry Sci. J. 27: 132-142. Wise, R. G., and W. J. Stadelman, 1959. Tenderness at various muscle depths associated with poultry processing techniques. Food Technol. 13: 689-691. Wyche, R. C , and T. L. Goodwin, 1971. The effect of retort cooking pressure and breading technique on yield and per cent breading of broiler parts. J. Milk Food Technol. 34: 347-348.
J. B . COOPER
Department of Poultry Science, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29631 (Received for publication July 18, 1975)
ABSTRACT Four light intensities were used in completely enclosed pigeon houses for 14 hours per 24 hours. Open front pens with only natural light were also used. There were four pens per treatment and five pairs of young, breeding age, White Carneaux per pen for 420 days, Results per treatment, 16, 30, 44 and 61 lumens per sq. m. and open pens, were respectively as follows for each objective: squabs raised—252, 220, 288, 203, and 212 with no significant differences except for the 44 lumen treatment which was higher than all others except 16; body wt./squab in g.—522, 526, 522, 508, and 531 at four weeks of age with no significant differences; feed per squab in kg.—4.7, 5.3, 4.5, 5.5, and 5.1 with only a significant difference between treatments 44 and 61 lumens; percent hatchability—89.7, 82.1, 89.6, 78.0, and 82.9 with no significant differences; percent squabs raised—93.7, 88.7, 97.9, 91.0, and 89.5 with no significant differences. The average number of squabs raised per treatment for all enclosed artificially lighted pens was 241 compared to 212 for the open pens with only natural light. POULTRY SCIENCE 55: 755-757, 1976
INTRODUCTION
P
I G E O N lofts generally use fly pens and natural light. R e s e a r c h involving lighting and enclosed housing is seriously lacking. Levi (1941) reported no advantage using artificial light t w o hours in the morning and late afternoon with 425 pairs of White Carneaux at Sumter, South Carolina. Piatt and Dare (1937) had doubtful conclusions that lights increased egg production, higher hatchability, and larger s q u a b s because of small
1. Published with the approval of the Director of the South Carolina Agric. Experiment Station as Technical Contribution No. 1283.
n u m b e r s , five pairs per treatment and no replication. Since little information on lighting was found in the literature, this experiment was designed to determine if lighting had any advantage in t h e production of s q u a b s . PROCEDURE Variations in light intensity were used. T o control duration a n d intensity of the light, completely enclosed artificially ventilated h o u s e s were used. In addition, and as a control, open front pens with fly pens were used with only natural light. Total pen size w a s the same as that for the completely enclosed p e n s . It was recognized that tem-
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at D H Hill Library - Acquis S on June 11, 2015
Light Intensity and Housing for Pigeons'
756
J. B. COOPER
Each pen had six pairs of nests, a shell hopper, a tube feeder and a waterer. No bath water was provided to any pen. Commercial pigeon pellets, chick size oyster shell and water were supplied ad libitum. Five males and five females of White Carneaux were used per pen. At the start they were unmated, young, breeding age birds. The nests were filled with pine needles at the start, and needles were available in special holders. After a few days, this type nesting material had to be changed because the needles were accidentally dropped through the openings in the floor by the pigeons. Commercial nest pads or chick box pads were then used very satisfactorily. After several nests of squabs, various types of insects were noticed, so a small amount of Sevin was added to each nest as a pesticide. This controlled the insect problem. New nest pads
were added as needed. Records of feed and shell consumption were kept on a 28-day basis for 15 periods. Data for each pair of nests were maintained. These included dates, egg production, eggs broken, eggs hatched, eggs fertile or infertile, squabs hatched, squab mortality, and squab weights at the age of 28-34 days. Nests were checked on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Squabs of marketable age were removed every Thursday and weighed. An analysis of variance was used to determine differences due to treatment. The Duncan's multiple range test was used to differentiate significance, if any, among treatments (Steel and Torrie, 1960). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The first eggs were laid in all treatments within three weeks after the start of the experiment. Squabs were available for marketing during the third 28-day period. Eggs produced per treatment varied from a low of 333 in the open pens to 407 for the 44 lumens/sq. m. pens shown in Table 1. The production in the open pen treatment was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than for those pigeons receiving 44 lumens of light. There was no significant difference between any other pens. There was a high percentage of broken eggs, Table 1. The open pens, treatment 5, had about half the percentage of broken eggs as the confined pens, but only significantly different (P < 0.05) when compared to treatment 2 (30 lumens). Fertility was good in all treatments with a range of 92.3 to 98.5 percent, Table 1. Treatments 4 and 5 had significantly (P < 0.05) lower fertility than treatment 3. There is no explanation for this. The light intensity between treatments 4 and 3 was not as great as between other treatments. Treatment 4 (61 lumens) also had the lowest percent of hatchability, but this difference was not significant (P < 0.05). Due to both the lowest percentages
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at D H Hill Library - Acquis S on June 11, 2015
perature variation could be a variable between the two types of housing as well as lighting. Both of these factors are less controllable in open houses. Four pens, 1.5 m. x 3.7 m., for each of the controlled light treatments were built inside a completely enclosed artificially ventilated building. There were solid walls between each group of four pens. The light intensities varied at different locations in the pens on each treatment, so averages were made of readings taken at floor level and top of the nests in each pen. The averages were 16, 30, 44, and 61 lumens/sq. m., respectively for treatments 1, 2, 3, and 4. Slatted floors were used in the controlled lighted pens. Each of the open front pens had a part of the floor in the fly pen which was 1.5 m. x 1.2 m. leaving 1.5 m. x 2.5 m. inside the house. The fly pens had a concrete floor covered with 5 cm. of coarse granite rock. The open front pens plus their fly pens had only natural light. The inside floors of the open pens were soil, covered with shavings. The fly pen tops were covered as a protection against the weather.
757
LIGHT INTENSITY AND HOUSING FOR PIGEONS
TABLE 1.—Reproductive Broken 2 No. eggs Treat. % 18.2ab 1 385ab 18.6a 388ab 2 18.2ab 407a 3 14.8ab 359ab 4 9.3b 333b 5 1 Hatch of fertile eggs. 2 Includes missing eggs. 3 Values in a column not followed by
Eggs set 315a 316a 333a 310a 302a
Raised
Fert.
Hatch.'
%
%
%
95.2ab 95.6ab 98.5b 92.3a 94.7a
89.7a 82.1a 89.6a 78.0a 82.9a
93.7a 88.7a 97.9a 91.0a 89.5a
Squabs/ pair 12.6ab 11.0a 14.4b 10.2a 10.6a
the same letters are significantly (P < 0.05) different.
Squab weight was the lowest, although not significantly so (P > 0.05), in treatment 4, with feed per squab being the highest and significantly (P < 0.05) so when compared t o f e e d / s q u a b in treatment 3 (Table 2). T h e increase in feed per squab was probably due to the crediting of adult bird maintenance feed to fewer s q u a b s . Oyster shell used per s q u a b shows little relationship to numbers
consumption
of squabs raised. T h e r e is no explanation for the general trend in the use of shell to decline with an increase in light intensity. Observations of pigeons eating clay in the o p e n p e n s could possibly explain the lowest c o n s u m p tion of shell for any treatment. Also, any shell dropped on the floor could be picked u p ; while in the confinement pens, it would b e d r o p p e d through the slats. Enclosed h o u s e s and artificial lights can be used in the production of s q u a b s with good reproductive performance and as good or better, than with open pens. This experiment points up the need for i m p r o v e m e n t in m a n a g e m e n t a n d / o r equipment of some type to decrease broken-missing eggs and i m p r o v e m e n t in hatchability of fertile eggs. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T h e author is indebted to Dr. Walter E . J o h n s t o n of the Experimental Statistical Service of Clemson University for the statistical analysis. REFERENCES
Feed/ Squab Shell/ squab Treatwt. squab ment gkg. g4.72ab 1 522a 136a 5.31ab 141a 2 526a 3 522a 4.45b 86b 5.56a 95ab 4 508a 5. Bab 77b 5 531a 1 Values in a column not followed by the same letters are significantly (P < 0.05) different.
Levi, W. M., 1941. The Pigeon. R. L. Bryan Co., Columbia, S.C. Piatt, C. S., and R. S. Dare, 1937. New Jersey state pigeon breeding test. New Jersey Agri. Exp. Sta. Bui. 634. Steel, R. G. D., and J. H. Torrie, 1960. Principles and Procedures of Statistics. McGraw-Hill, New York.
MAY 30 - JUNE 4, 1976. TWENTIETH CONFERENCE OF COUNCIL OF BIOLOGY EDITORS, TULANE UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at D H Hill Library - Acquis S on June 11, 2015
in fertility and in hatchability, treatment 4 had the lowest number of s q u a b s hatched per pair. T r e a t m e n t 3, (44 l u m e n s / s q . m.) with 14.4 s q u a b s per pair, p r o d u c e d significantly (P < 0.05) more squabs then treatments 2, 4, and 5. T h e r e were no significant differences a m o n g the other t r e a t m e n t s as to s q u a b production. Had mated pairs been u s e d , more s q u a b s would probably h a v e been p r o d u c e d in 420 days. T h e results do indicate w h a t to expect as a beginning enterprise without any prior "pairing u p . "
TABLE 2.—Squab weights and feed per squab'
performance3
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND YIELD
and Procedures of Statistics. McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc. Summers, J. D., S. J. Slinger and G. C. Ashton, 1965. The effect of dietary energy and protein on carcass composition with a note on a method for estimating carcass composition. Poultry Sci. 44: 501-509. Wabeck, C. J., 1973. Breast muscle tenderness of male broilers reared in cages and floor pens. Poultry Sci. 52: 2098-2099. Wabeck, C. J., and L. H. Littlefield, 1972. Bone strength of broilers reared in floor pens and cages
having different bottoms. Poultry Sci. 51: 897-899. Welch, S. W., P. F. Metcalfe and R. W. Wesley, 1971. Broilers in cages. World's Poultry Sci. J. 27: 132-142. Wise, R. G., and W. J. Stadelman, 1959. Tenderness at various muscle depths associated with poultry processing techniques. Food Technol. 13: 689-691. Wyche, R. C , and T. L. Goodwin, 1971. The effect of retort cooking pressure and breading technique on yield and per cent breading of broiler parts. J. Milk Food Technol. 34: 347-348.
J. B . COOPER
Department of Poultry Science, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29631 (Received for publication July 18, 1975)
ABSTRACT Four light intensities were used in completely enclosed pigeon houses for 14 hours per 24 hours. Open front pens with only natural light were also used. There were four pens per treatment and five pairs of young, breeding age, White Carneaux per pen for 420 days, Results per treatment, 16, 30, 44 and 61 lumens per sq. m. and open pens, were respectively as follows for each objective: squabs raised—252, 220, 288, 203, and 212 with no significant differences except for the 44 lumen treatment which was higher than all others except 16; body wt./squab in g.—522, 526, 522, 508, and 531 at four weeks of age with no significant differences; feed per squab in kg.—4.7, 5.3, 4.5, 5.5, and 5.1 with only a significant difference between treatments 44 and 61 lumens; percent hatchability—89.7, 82.1, 89.6, 78.0, and 82.9 with no significant differences; percent squabs raised—93.7, 88.7, 97.9, 91.0, and 89.5 with no significant differences. The average number of squabs raised per treatment for all enclosed artificially lighted pens was 241 compared to 212 for the open pens with only natural light. POULTRY SCIENCE 55: 755-757, 1976
INTRODUCTION
P
I G E O N lofts generally use fly pens and natural light. R e s e a r c h involving lighting and enclosed housing is seriously lacking. Levi (1941) reported no advantage using artificial light t w o hours in the morning and late afternoon with 425 pairs of White Carneaux at Sumter, South Carolina. Piatt and Dare (1937) had doubtful conclusions that lights increased egg production, higher hatchability, and larger s q u a b s because of small
1. Published with the approval of the Director of the South Carolina Agric. Experiment Station as Technical Contribution No. 1283.
n u m b e r s , five pairs per treatment and no replication. Since little information on lighting was found in the literature, this experiment was designed to determine if lighting had any advantage in t h e production of s q u a b s . PROCEDURE Variations in light intensity were used. T o control duration a n d intensity of the light, completely enclosed artificially ventilated h o u s e s were used. In addition, and as a control, open front pens with fly pens were used with only natural light. Total pen size w a s the same as that for the completely enclosed p e n s . It was recognized that tem-
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at D H Hill Library - Acquis S on June 11, 2015
Light Intensity and Housing for Pigeons'
756
J. B. COOPER
Each pen had six pairs of nests, a shell hopper, a tube feeder and a waterer. No bath water was provided to any pen. Commercial pigeon pellets, chick size oyster shell and water were supplied ad libitum. Five males and five females of White Carneaux were used per pen. At the start they were unmated, young, breeding age birds. The nests were filled with pine needles at the start, and needles were available in special holders. After a few days, this type nesting material had to be changed because the needles were accidentally dropped through the openings in the floor by the pigeons. Commercial nest pads or chick box pads were then used very satisfactorily. After several nests of squabs, various types of insects were noticed, so a small amount of Sevin was added to each nest as a pesticide. This controlled the insect problem. New nest pads
were added as needed. Records of feed and shell consumption were kept on a 28-day basis for 15 periods. Data for each pair of nests were maintained. These included dates, egg production, eggs broken, eggs hatched, eggs fertile or infertile, squabs hatched, squab mortality, and squab weights at the age of 28-34 days. Nests were checked on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Squabs of marketable age were removed every Thursday and weighed. An analysis of variance was used to determine differences due to treatment. The Duncan's multiple range test was used to differentiate significance, if any, among treatments (Steel and Torrie, 1960). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The first eggs were laid in all treatments within three weeks after the start of the experiment. Squabs were available for marketing during the third 28-day period. Eggs produced per treatment varied from a low of 333 in the open pens to 407 for the 44 lumens/sq. m. pens shown in Table 1. The production in the open pen treatment was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than for those pigeons receiving 44 lumens of light. There was no significant difference between any other pens. There was a high percentage of broken eggs, Table 1. The open pens, treatment 5, had about half the percentage of broken eggs as the confined pens, but only significantly different (P < 0.05) when compared to treatment 2 (30 lumens). Fertility was good in all treatments with a range of 92.3 to 98.5 percent, Table 1. Treatments 4 and 5 had significantly (P < 0.05) lower fertility than treatment 3. There is no explanation for this. The light intensity between treatments 4 and 3 was not as great as between other treatments. Treatment 4 (61 lumens) also had the lowest percent of hatchability, but this difference was not significant (P < 0.05). Due to both the lowest percentages
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at D H Hill Library - Acquis S on June 11, 2015
perature variation could be a variable between the two types of housing as well as lighting. Both of these factors are less controllable in open houses. Four pens, 1.5 m. x 3.7 m., for each of the controlled light treatments were built inside a completely enclosed artificially ventilated building. There were solid walls between each group of four pens. The light intensities varied at different locations in the pens on each treatment, so averages were made of readings taken at floor level and top of the nests in each pen. The averages were 16, 30, 44, and 61 lumens/sq. m., respectively for treatments 1, 2, 3, and 4. Slatted floors were used in the controlled lighted pens. Each of the open front pens had a part of the floor in the fly pen which was 1.5 m. x 1.2 m. leaving 1.5 m. x 2.5 m. inside the house. The fly pens had a concrete floor covered with 5 cm. of coarse granite rock. The open front pens plus their fly pens had only natural light. The inside floors of the open pens were soil, covered with shavings. The fly pen tops were covered as a protection against the weather.
757
LIGHT INTENSITY AND HOUSING FOR PIGEONS
TABLE 1.—Reproductive Broken 2 No. eggs Treat. % 18.2ab 1 385ab 18.6a 388ab 2 18.2ab 407a 3 14.8ab 359ab 4 9.3b 333b 5 1 Hatch of fertile eggs. 2 Includes missing eggs. 3 Values in a column not followed by
Eggs set 315a 316a 333a 310a 302a
Raised
Fert.
Hatch.'
%
%
%
95.2ab 95.6ab 98.5b 92.3a 94.7a
89.7a 82.1a 89.6a 78.0a 82.9a
93.7a 88.7a 97.9a 91.0a 89.5a
Squabs/ pair 12.6ab 11.0a 14.4b 10.2a 10.6a
the same letters are significantly (P < 0.05) different.
Squab weight was the lowest, although not significantly so (P > 0.05), in treatment 4, with feed per squab being the highest and significantly (P < 0.05) so when compared t o f e e d / s q u a b in treatment 3 (Table 2). T h e increase in feed per squab was probably due to the crediting of adult bird maintenance feed to fewer s q u a b s . Oyster shell used per s q u a b shows little relationship to numbers
consumption
of squabs raised. T h e r e is no explanation for the general trend in the use of shell to decline with an increase in light intensity. Observations of pigeons eating clay in the o p e n p e n s could possibly explain the lowest c o n s u m p tion of shell for any treatment. Also, any shell dropped on the floor could be picked u p ; while in the confinement pens, it would b e d r o p p e d through the slats. Enclosed h o u s e s and artificial lights can be used in the production of s q u a b s with good reproductive performance and as good or better, than with open pens. This experiment points up the need for i m p r o v e m e n t in m a n a g e m e n t a n d / o r equipment of some type to decrease broken-missing eggs and i m p r o v e m e n t in hatchability of fertile eggs. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T h e author is indebted to Dr. Walter E . J o h n s t o n of the Experimental Statistical Service of Clemson University for the statistical analysis. REFERENCES
Feed/ Squab Shell/ squab Treatwt. squab ment gkg. g4.72ab 1 522a 136a 5.31ab 141a 2 526a 3 522a 4.45b 86b 5.56a 95ab 4 508a 5. Bab 77b 5 531a 1 Values in a column not followed by the same letters are significantly (P < 0.05) different.
Levi, W. M., 1941. The Pigeon. R. L. Bryan Co., Columbia, S.C. Piatt, C. S., and R. S. Dare, 1937. New Jersey state pigeon breeding test. New Jersey Agri. Exp. Sta. Bui. 634. Steel, R. G. D., and J. H. Torrie, 1960. Principles and Procedures of Statistics. McGraw-Hill, New York.
MAY 30 - JUNE 4, 1976. TWENTIETH CONFERENCE OF COUNCIL OF BIOLOGY EDITORS, TULANE UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at D H Hill Library - Acquis S on June 11, 2015
in fertility and in hatchability, treatment 4 had the lowest number of s q u a b s hatched per pair. T r e a t m e n t 3, (44 l u m e n s / s q . m.) with 14.4 s q u a b s per pair, p r o d u c e d significantly (P < 0.05) more squabs then treatments 2, 4, and 5. T h e r e were no significant differences a m o n g the other t r e a t m e n t s as to s q u a b production. Had mated pairs been u s e d , more s q u a b s would probably h a v e been p r o d u c e d in 420 days. T h e results do indicate w h a t to expect as a beginning enterprise without any prior "pairing u p . "
TABLE 2.—Squab weights and feed per squab'
performance3