Table 6.

Daidzein (Da) and Chinese herbs (CH) increases egg quality of post-peak laying hens on wk 8 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 ± 0.032	0.39 ± 0.016	28 ± 1.2	6.2 ± 0.58b	6.9 ± 0.24	72 ± 2.3c	62.8 ± 0.90ab	27.0 ± 1.12	10.2 ± 0.64
	+	1.32 ± 0.031	0.39 ± 0.013	34 ± 1.3	6.6 ± 0.29ab	7.0 ± 0.22	79 ± 1.7ab	62.6 ± 1.31ab	26.6 ± 1.25	10.7 ± 0.62
+	-	1.32 ± 0.028	0.40 ± 0.026	31 ± 1.3	6.7 ± 0.14ab	6.9 ± 0.33	77 ± 2.2b	61.7 ± 0.75b	27.3 ± 0.87	10.8 ± 0.56
	+	1.30 ± 0.033	0.39 ± 0.025	32 ± 1.1	6.9 ± 0.09a	6.9 ± 0.29	80 ± 1.4a	63.7 ± 1.23a	25.4 ± 0.96	10.8 ± 0.48
Main effect means
-		1.314	0.395	31.1	6.38	6.92	76.3b	62.75	26.83	10.50
+		1.315	0.392	31.8	6.81	6.90	79.2a	62.74	26.33	10.68
	-	1.315	0.396	29.9	6.52	6.93	76.4b	62.38	27.10a	10.52
	+	1.316	0.394	33.1	6.79	6.96	79.5a	63.16	26.10b	10.78
ANOVA
PDa		0.657	0.642	0.672	0.716	0.892	0.049	0.922	0.314	0.435
PCH		0.771	0.780	0.239	0.215	0.711	0.047	0.056	0.017	0.094
PDa*CH		0.136	0.705	0.338	0.025	0.711	0.006	0.018	0.098	0.538

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