An experiment was executed at the Horticultural orchard and the laboratory of fruit section, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt during three successive seasons of 2005, 2006 and 2007 on Balady mandarin trees. The study aimed to investigate the effect of biofertilizers, micro nutrients and their different combinations on the yield and fruit quality as well as the nutrients status in the soil and leaves associated with these treatments. Biofertilizers including Phosphorien, Nitrobien and Potassien were applied at a rate of 250g from each type/tree every season or in combination with chelated elements including Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu. Micronutrients were twice sprayed at 60 ppm on mid March and June. The results revealed that mandarin yield (kg/tree) significantly increased by 21.7%, 13.1 and 19.0% over the control as a result of applying the biofertilizers alone, a combination of the biofertilizers with micronutrient, and micronutrients spraying alone, respectively (as an average of the three seasons). The study also indicated that the early harvesting on mid December was superior respecting the yield in comparison with the late harvest date on mid February. The results also revealed that all the treatments caused a significant increase in the fruit weight. They also mostly had insignificant effect on the fruit chemical properties. Applying biofertilizers alone or combined with micronutrients, and the micronutrients alone increased N, P and K content in the leaves as compared to the control. The increment percentages were 9.09%, 9.56% and 11.48% for N%, 20.26%, 15.68% and 30.06% for P, and 42.85%, 56.04% and 56.04% for K, in relation to the later treatments, respectively. Also, micronutrients content in the leaves were enhanced due to the biofertilizers and micronutrients foliar application. Data also revealed that, all the nutrient concentrations in the spring leaves surpassed that in the summer leaves. The calculated yield/feddan (early harvest date) due to using the biofertilizers (about 9 tons/feddan) removed 6.49, 1.72, and 11.95 Kg/fed of N, P and K, respectively. While, the application of the recommended dose of N, P and K removed 5.35, 1.70 and 13.82 Kg/fed of N, P and K, respectively.

This study aimed to evaluate the potential of Moringa oleifera fresh leaves (MOL) as feed supplement on the performance and egg quality of Rhode Island Red (RIR) hens under the tropical conditions of Yucatan, Mexico. Forty-eight RIR hens were allocated in 12 floor pen replicates each with four birds. Thereafter, the replicates were divided into three groups which were corresponded to ad libitum feed (control), ad libitum feed supplemented with MOL T1 (AL + MOL) and restricted feed amount (20% lower than control) with MOL T2 (RCD + MOL), respectively. T1 (AL + MOL) had higher egg laying rate (71.4% versus 66.6%), higher daily egg mass production (45.4 versus 41.9 g/day), lower feed intake (121.3 versus 127.5 g/day) and better feed conversion ratio (2.8 versus 3.2 g feed:g egg) versus control. T2 / (RCD + MOL) had lower values of body weight, egg laying rate, egg weight and egg mass, and recorded better feed conversion ratio than the control group. The control group recorded a higher percentage of pecked eggs versus T1 and T2 (6.5% versus 1.2% and 2.0 %). Similar intake of MOL (3.1 and 3.4 g DM/day) was recorded in T1 (AL + MOL) and T2 (RCD + MOL). Yolk color was improved significantly in T1 (AL + MOL) than both control and T2 (RCD + MOL), while T2 (RCD + MOL) had eggs with lower yolk and higher albumen percentages than the other two ad libitum groups. The results suggest that MOL could be used successfully as sustainable tropical feed resource for RIR hens.

The aim of this experiment was to study the suitability of the outdoor system for Rhode Island Red hens under the tropical conditions of southern Mexico. Twelve floor pens, each containing four birds, were divided randomly into two groups. The first group was raised indoors only, while each of the second group replicates had access to an outdoor area with natural-grown vegetation from 0800 to 1700 hours daily. Both groups fed ad libitum on a commercial layers diet. The results revealed no differences in body weight between treatments. The outdoor group recorded significantly higher egg laying rate (86.90 vs. 78.05 %), higher egg mass (50.66 vs. 45.30 g egg/hen/day), and higher feed intake (103.70 vs. 97.67 g/day) versus the indoor group. The outdoor group had eggs with darker yellow yolks (9.46 vs. 5.46), lower yolk, and higher albumen proportions (P  0.05) versus the indoor group. The crop content of the outdoor hens consisted of 86.55 % concentrated feed, 6.30 % plant material, 2.27 % grit stones, 1.69 % snails and oyster shells, 1.25 % seeds, 0.95 % farm wastes, and 0.99 % insects, worms, and larvae. Of the outdoor hens, 43.1 % was observed to be in the range at each scanning time. The outdoor system in the tropics had beneficial effects on Rhode Island Red hen performance, and the hens utilized the outdoor area effectively and obtained various feed items.