Table 2.

Effects of rearing cage type and dietary limestone particle size on eggshell quality attributes in Lohmann LSL-lite hens.

Age, wk:	Cage1			LPS2			SEM	P-value
	CON	FUR	SEM	F	FM	M		Cage	LPS	Cage x LPS
Eggshell thickness (EST), mm
24	0.442	0.439	0.003	0.441	0.443	0.438	0.004	0.538	0.718	0.450
28	0.438	0.438	0.002	0.437	0.441	0.436	0.002	0.931	0.322	0.398
32	0.429	0.436	0.002	0.432	0.434	0.431	0.003	0.131	0.727	0.720
36	0.427	0.430	0.003	0.430	0.423	0.433	0.003	0.471	0.201	0.624
40	0.425b	0.434a	0.002	0.429	0.430	0.430	0.003	0.021	0.995	0.315
Eggshell breaking strength (ESBS), N
24	48.2	48.3	0.660	46.6	48.2	45.8	0.810	0.949	0.118	0.527
28	45.7	44.5	0.880	43.6	46.4	45.4	1.079	0.350	0.200	0.556
32	45.0	45.1	0.800	45.2	45.3	44.7	0.990	0.931	0.913	0.674
36	44.2	45.2	0.873	45.2	44.4	44.5	1.069	0.407	0.827	0.747
40	47.2	46.5	1.069	48.2	45.8	46.6	1.309	0.632	0.437	0.513
Eggshell weight (ESW), g
24	5.78	5.88	0.050	5.84	5.90	5.76	0.069	0.194	0.362	0.110
28	6.00	6.05	0.071	5.89	6.19	5.97	0.086	0.658	0.060	0.743
32	6.02	6.03	0.069	6.11	6.05	5.91	0.084	0.911	0.256	0.938
36	5.79	5.98	0.050	5.93	5.89	5.85	0.069	0.025	0.701	0.283
40	6.00b	6.24a	0.050	6.07	6.17	6.11	0.065	0.004	0.550	0.124
Proportion of eggshell, %
24	10.4	10.3	0.080	10.3	10.4	10.3	0.099	0.516	0.588	0.156
28	10.1	10.1	0.068	9.96	10.2	10.1	0.084	0.440	0.152	0.858
32	9.98	9.77	0.152	9.88	9.80	9.95	0.186	0.333	0.850	0.667
36	9.62	9.66	0.143	9.61	9.71	9.60	0.175	0.855	0.881	0.604
40	9.68b	9.91a	0.076	9.81	9.78	9.79	0.093	0.047	0.987	0.810

¹CON, conventional cage 76 cm × 71 cm × 46 cm; FUR, furnished cage 239 cm × 80 cm × 75 cm outfitted with platforms and terraces to increases opportunities for load bearing exercises (e.g. jumping, perching, flying) (Casey-Trott et al., 2017a; Habinski et al., 2017).

²LPS, limestone particle size; F, fine, <0.595 mm, F; medium, 0.595 to <1.68 mm, M; and 1:1 mixture of F and M wt/wt; FM. Within a column, LSmeans with letter superscripts differs, P < 0.05 (n = 5).