Effects of broccoli residues on the egg quality, fertility and hatchability of Xianju Sanhuang layers

To study the effect of broccoli residues on the egg quality, fertility and hatchability of Xianju San Huang layers, 384 chickens were randomly allocated to 4 treatments, which were the control group, groupⅠ, groupⅡ, and group Ⅲ, each treatment included 3 replicates of 32 chickens per replicate. They were respectively fed dietary broccoli residues at the level of 0%, 4%, 6% and 8%. The results showed that:1) There were no significant differences in the production performance for layers of adding broccoli residues （P0.05）;2) Compared with the control group, test group significantly improved in the albumen height, yolk color, haugh unit, eggshell thickness and eggshell strength (P0.05). And there were lower content of yolk cholesterol in the test Ⅱ and test Ⅲ (P0.05); 3) The fertility of test I and test Ⅱ was higher than the control (P0.05), but there were no significant differences between test Ⅲ and the control（P0.05）.The hatchability of test group was lower than the control, especially in the test Ⅱ and test Ⅲ (P0.05). It is suggested that adding broccoli residues could improve egg quality, decrease the content of yolk cholesterol, and increase fertility rate. However, the hatchability would fall with the increase of broccoli residues in feed.