Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

An experiment was conducted on 500 Vanaraja eggs of different sizes viz. , T₁ (40-45g), T₂ (45-50g), T₃ (50-55g), T₄ (55-60g) and T₅ (60-65g) to study the egg quality traits, fertility, hatchability and weight of day-old chicks in an organized farm. A minimum of 100 eggs per group were selected and incubated under optimum temperature, humidity and other conditions required for incubation was maintained in setter. Ten eggs from each group were selected to study different external and internal quality parameters. Candling was performed on 18^th day of incubation to determine fertility of the eggs and fertile eggs were transferred to hatcher. Fertility (%) ranged from 71.30±4.67 per cent in T₁ to 84.00±7.00 per cent in T₄ group with significant (P≤0.05) differences and hatchability was also significant (P≤0.05) among the groups. The body weight of day-old chicks ranged from 27.67±1.49 in T₁ to 42.34±0.85 g in T₅ groups with significant (P≤0.05) differences among the groups. The dead germ (%) was significantly (P≤0.05) higher in T₁ (7.33±0.67) group than all other groups. The dead -in- shell (%) was significantly (P≤0.05) lowest in T₃ (14.50±1.50) and highest in T₁ group (19.25±1.15). The egg specific gravity (mg/dL) was ranged from 1.073±0.02 to 1.092±0.03. The albumen weight ranged from 24.31±0.87 to 38.59±1.12g with significant (P≤0.05) differences. The Haugh unit scores among the groups differed significantly (P≤0.05). From the present study it is concluded that the size of egg has significant effect on fertility, hatchability and dead-in-shell of Vanaraja parent stock eggs. The body weight of day-old chicks significantly (P≤0.05) increased linearly as the egg weight increased.