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¹ Tavukçuluk Araştırma Enstitüsü Müdürlüğü, Ankara, Türkiye
² Ankara Üniversitesi, Veteriner Fakültesi, Zootekni ve Hayvan Besleme Bölümü, Dışkapı/Ankara, Türkiye - The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of dietary sunflower seed, crude soybean and degummed soybean oils on the egg production, feed intake, feed to gain ratio, body weight, egg weight, yolk ratio, egg fatty acids, lecithin level, hatchability and chick quality of layer breeders A total of 18 cockerel and 168 layer breeders aged 20 weeks (bred by Poultry Research Institute) were used in this study. Layer breeder hens were randomly distributed into 3 treatments consisting of 8 replicates with 7 hens in each. 3% sunflower seed oil, 3% crude soybean oil and 3% degummed soybean oil were added to the diets of the treatments. The experiment was continued until the age of 40 weeks from 20 weeks of age. At the end of the study, there were no statistically differences (P>0.05) on egg production, yolk rate, feed intake, feed to gain ratio and body weight of the birds in the groups. Egg weight, lecithin and linolenic acid levels were significantly different (P<0.05) in the examined groups. Hatchability, hatchability of fertile eggs, fertility rate and embryonic mortality were not statistically different (P>0.05) in each treatment group of breeders from 36 weeks of age, while chick weight was higher (P<0.05) in the group fed the degummed soybean oil among the groups. As a result, it is considered that significant differences were not seen in performance and hatchery characteristics, since lecithin was not fully extracted from degummed soybean sold in market. Keywords : Layer breeder, fat source, performance, lecithin, hatchery characteristics