eng Rovedar Journal of World’s Poultry Science 2980-7999 2026-09-20 5 3 36 42 10.58803/jwps.v5i3.126 128 Lebalang Manyali 0 https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1031-8376 Oluwabiyi Ikeolu Atanda Oluremi 0 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5440-4807 Thakane Mary Molefe 0 https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0342-3828 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, The National University of Lesotho, P.O. Roma, Lesotho Introduction: High costs of conventional feed ingredients, along with climate change impacting crop growth, result in shortages of conventional feeds. The present study aimed to determine the effects of different levels of composite bakery waste (CBW) as a maize replacement on the productive performance and egg quality of laying hens in a temperate environment. Materials and methods: A total of 150 laying hens aged 26 weeks, with an average body weight of 1.704 kilograms, were randomly allocated to five treatment groups, with three replicates of ten chickens each. The CBW was air-dried, ground, and analyzed for proximate composition, then replaced with maize in laying hens' diets at levels of 0% (T1), 5% (T2), 10% (T3), 15% (T4), and 20% (T5). The feeding trial duration was 49 days. Productive performance, such as body weight, mortality, and egg quality indices, including egg weight, shell weight, shell thickness, yolk height, yolk index, yolk color, albumen length, albumen width, albumen height, albumen weight, albumen index, and Haugh unit of the experimental laying hens, was determined at alternate weeks (weeks 1, 3, 5, 7), except hen-day egg production, which was recorded daily. Results: The CBW contained 93.17% dry matter, 5.67% crude protein, 0.24% crude fiber, 0.31% ether extract, 83.30% nitrogen-free extract, 0.29% calcium, 0.53% phosphorus, and 3192.43 kcal/kg metabolizable energy. Dietary CBW had no significant effect on final body weight, hen-day egg production, or mortality. Dietary CBW demonstrated a significant positive correlation with eggshell thickness across all treatment groups. Adding CBW demonstrated a positive, statistically significant correlation with albumen length in T4 compared to other groups. However, including CBW did not significantly affect yolk length, yolk height, yolk index, yolk color, albumen width, albumen height, albumen weight, or albumen index across all treatment groups. Conclusion: The current findings suggest that CBW can serve as a substitute for maize in laying-hen diets. Shell thickness increased with CBW at 15% and 20% inclusion levels and did not adversely affect productive performance and egg quality traits. Albumen length was the only internal trait affected, increasing significantly at the 15% CBW replacement of maize. https://jwps.rovedar.com/index.php/JWPS/article/view/126 Composite bakery waste Egg quality Laying hen Performance