Growth and egg laying performance of growing turkeys fed diets containing varying levels of honey

Abstract

An eighteen weeks feeding trial was conducted in two phases to determine the effects of feeding varying levels of honey, as a nutritive additive, on the growth and egg laying performance of growing turkeys. A total number of 90 twelve-weeks-old growing turkeys with an initial mean body weight of 1,760.81 g and of mixed sexes were used for the study. During the first phase, the birds were randomly allotted to three dietary treatments designated T1, T2 and T3 containing 0, 2 and 4 % of honey respectively; with 30 birds per treatment, each replicated thrice with 10 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design experiment. Nutrient digestibility trial was conducted at the end of the 9th week of the experiment. During the second phase, 54 twenty-two-weeks old growing turkey were randomly allotted to three treatments, which were standard diets for laying turkey containing 0, 2 and 4 % of honey respectively, and replicated three times with six birds in each replicate in a completely randomized design experiment. With the onset of egg laying, eggs were collected daily and the number recorded per replicate. Results show that there were no significant (p>0.05) differences in daily feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio among growing turkeys fed the different treatment diets. Also, there were no significant (p>0.05) differences in nutrient digestibility among the treatment groups, except in nitrogen free extracts where birds on Diet T3 (4 % honey) had significantly (p<0.05) higher values. For laying turkeys, FCR and HDP were significantly (p<0.05) improved as the dietary levels of honey increased, with the best values obtained at 4 % dietary inclusion level.