Abstract

Heat stress can impact the performance of laying hens. Perches can be transformed into a cooling device to boost the thermal comfort of laying hens. This study assessed the commercial laying hens' performance that provided access to chilled perches. This experiment used a completely randomized design with three treatments and five replicates of 10 chickens. The treatments were (a) no perch as a control, (b) cooled perch, and (c) wood perch. Chilled water was obtained using a Resun Chiller CL 650 and circulated through the perches from 9:00 to 17:00 daily. The perch temperature during the day was approximately 24°C. Data were analyzed using SAS' Proc Mixed. Feed intake, egg weight, and average egg weight did not differ between treatments. Egg production (P = 0.002) was better in cooled perch birds (79.23%) than in wood perch birds (70.25%) but not higher (P = 0.09) than in control birds (74.9%). However, egg mass (P = 0.001), feed conversion ratio (P = 0.009) and body temperature (P = 0.006) were better in cooled perched birds (48.67; 2.28; 40.97°C) compared to wood perch birds (43.29; 2.44; 41.13°C) and control perch birds (44.70; 2.40; 41.13°C). Providing cooled perches in a semi-scavenging system in the tropics could improve the performance of laying hens.