DOI: n/a
Abstract
A study with chickens has been conducted with the purpose of establishing the average daily consumption of water under biological conditions. The sample size consisted of 100 chickens from New Hampshire and Red Starozagorska breeds. Throughout the experiment, the chickens received the same food mixture that consisted of 11,98MJ ОЕ, 19,31% СП, 0,88% lysine, 0,66% methionine+cystine, 0,85% potassium и 0,48% total phosphorus. The quantity of consumed water has been recorded daily while the weight of chickens has been recorded weekly. 60 days after hatching, the chickens have increased their water consumption by an average of 6.5 times. An observation is made that the higher the growth rate of the chickens, the higher the water consumption is. The established correlation coefficients between the average water consumption and the average daily growth are as follows: 0.63 (between day 20 and day 60), 0.44 (between day 40 and day 60) and 0.10 (between day 20 and day 40). These coefficients reflect the physiological characteristics of growth and define the correlation between water consumption and average daily growth (net change in weight).