The relationship between food and water intake and the effects of water restriction on laying brown leghorn hens

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Abstract
1. In 10 laying Brown Leghorn hens, hourly patterns of food and water intake followed each other closely, both throughout the day and in relation to oviposition time. 2. Only half the birds showed significant (P < 0.05) positive correlations between food and water intake on a daily basis, but all of them showed highly significant correlations on an hourly basis. However, on average, about 20% of both the daily and the hourly variation in water intake could be accounted for by variation in food intake, and vice versa. 3. Restricting the daily water supply of each bird to 90% of its ad libitum intake, for a period of 6 weeks, caused a predicted reduction in daily food intake with only 3 out of 10 birds, but a very precise reduction to the level predicted with the overall mean food intake of all the birds. This suggests that water restriction may be a good way of controlling the food consumption of groups of birds but not of individuals. 4. Although egg production did not differ significantly between the ad libitum and water restriction periods, it did decline in the second half of the restriction period, at a time when the birds were gaining weight. This appears to confirm the widely‐held view that water restriction cannot be used to control the body weight of laying birds without it first affecting egg production. It is concluded that water restriction has little or no practical application for layers, but may be of value for reducing the growth rate of young birds in order to delay sexual maturity.