Reproductive Performance and First Egg Lay of Four Indigenous Chicken Genotypes in the Rainforest Zone of Nigeria.

Abstract

A total of 377 eggs made up of 72 eggs from naked neck, 92 from frizzle feathered, 130 from normal feathered and 83 from short flight feathered chickens were incubated in three batches under controlled temperature and relative humidity in an experiment to compare egg fertility and hatchability of four indigenous chicken genotypes in the rainforest zone of Nigeria. Hatched chicks from the four genotypes were raised under intensive system of management to compare age and weight of hen at maturity as well as weight of first egg laid under the same environmental condition using complete randomized design. Mean computational values of the data were taken using Statistical Procedure for Social Sciences (SPSS) and they were expressed in percentage. The results showed that the naked neck was significantly (P<0.05) better in terms of body weight (955.17g) but similar with frizzle feathered chickens in terms of age at first egg (158days and 160days). However, naked neck chickens had the highest (72.09%) dead in germ, poorest fertility and hatchability of 59.71% and 23.24% compared with the frizzle feathered (53.05%, 71.73% and 46.96%) and the normal feathered chickens (36.55%, 71.54% and 63.45%) an indication that normal feathered chicken performed better than others in terms of fertility and hatchability percentages. It was concluded that apart from bodyweight and early laying trait advantages possessed by naked neck, the normal feathered indigenous chickens can be said to have better reproductive characteristic compared to the other chicken genotypes used in this study.