Table 5.

Daidzein (Da) and Chinese herbs (CH) increase egg quality of post-peak laying hens on wk 4 of treatment.

Factor		Egg quality characteristic
Da	CH	Shape index	Shell thickness (mm)	Shell strength (N)	Albumen height (mm)	Yolk color	Haugh unit	Albumen ratio (%)	Yolk ratio (%)	Shell ratio (%)
Interaction means
-	-	1.30 ± 0.022	0.38 ± 0.035	29 ± 3.0	7.9 ± 0.95	7.1 ± 0.40	78 ± 6.1	61.9 ± 2.16	27.4 ± 1.46	10.7 ± 0.83
	+	1.31 ± 0.021	0.36 ± 0.034	29 ± 3.3	7.4 ± 0.52	7.2 ± 0.14	81 ± 3.7	63.7 ± 0.59	25.9 ± 0.77	10.4 ± 0.72
+	-	1.31 ± 0.024	0.37 ± 0.042	28 ± 2.4	7.7 ± 0.77	7.3 ± 0.42	81 ± 3.5	62.0 ± 1.04	26.9 ± 1.28	10.9 ± 0.80
	+	1.30 ± 0.017	0.37 ± 0.029	29 ± 3.1	7.8 ± 0.48	7.2 ± 0.39	83 ± 3.0	63.6 ± 1.23	25.9 ± 1.00	10.4 ± 0.49
Main effect means
-		1.312	0.371	29.2	7.66	7.15	79.6b	62.78	26.66	10.54
+		1.308	0.372	28.5	7.72	7.24	82.7a	62.78	26.40	10.66
	-	1.311	0.378	28.8	7.78	7.20	79.3b	61.93b	27.17a	10.79
	+	1.304	0.374	28.9	7.60	7.18	82.0a	63.63a	25.89b	10.41
ANOVA
PDa		0.654	0.831	0.793	0.853	0.548	0.033	0.996	0.604	0.725
PCH		0.826	0.436	0.983	0.554	0.866	0.042	0.011	0.017	0.834
PDa*CH		0.305	0.654	0.909	0.354	0.501	0.081	0.834	0.617	0.878

^a-bMain effect means with different letters are significantly different (P < 0.05); N = 6, data are expressed as mean ± SE.