This experiment was to study the effects of dietary energy level on laying performance, egg quality and egg component of Arbor Acres (AA) broiler breeders during the early laying period. A single factor design was adopted, and 300 AA broiler breeders (20 weeks of age) with similar body weight were randomly divided into 3 groups with 5 replicates per group and 20 birds in each replicate. The experiment was conducted from 27 weeks of age (defined as laying rate reached 5%), and lasted for 98 days. The broilers breeder in the control group were fed a corn-soybean meal based diet, and those in high energy group and low energy group were fed the diets with 120% and 80% energy levels of the basal diet, respectively. During the experiment period, feed intake in each group was restricted and in the same set. The results showed as follows: 1) compared with the control group, laying rate and egg weight in high energy group and low energy group were found to be lower (P<0.05), the qualified egg rate in low energy group was significantly higher than that in the control group and high energy group (P<0.05), and with the decrease of dietary energy level, the cracked egg rate was significantly lower (P<0.05). 2) No effects of dietary energy level on egg quality were found (P>0.05) except that yolk color score in high energy group was significantly increased at 35 and 40 weeks of age compared with the control group (P<0.05). 3) Compared with the control group, at 35 weeks of age, the relative weight of yolk and the contents of crude fat and total cholesterol in yolk in high energy group were significantly increased (P<0.05), but the contents of crude protein, crude fat in egg white and crude protein in yolk were found to be lower (P<0.05); the relative weight of egg white and total cholesterol content in yolk in low energy group were significantly higher (P<0.05), but crude protein content in egg white was significantly decreased (P<0.05); there were no significant differences in the relative weight of eggshell and dry matter content in egg white and yolk among all groups (P>0.05). At 40 weeks of age, the relative weight of egg white and eggshell and crude fat content in yolk in high energy group were significantly higher (P<0.05), but the relative weight of yolk and crude protein content in yolk were significantly lower (P<0.05); the relative weight of egg white in low energy group was significantly higher (P<0.05), thus the relative weight of yolk was significantly lower (P<0.05); there were no significant differences in the contents of dry matter, crude protein and crude fat in egg white and dry matter and total cholesterol in yolk among all groups (P>0.05). In conclusion, during the early laying period, dietary high energy level results in higher cost and worse laying performance of broiler breeders, but dietary lower energy level may improve the qualified egg rate, with no effects on egg quality and egg component. These findings indicate that low-energy diets may be more beneficial in practice than other diets.