Repeatability Of Body Weight And Egg Production Traits In Quails Under Zaria Environment

📄 Project Abstract

Forty-eight Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) hens were individually caged and intensively reared for a period of 28 weeks to study the egg production pattern, egg quality characteristics and the relationships between laying age and repeatability of egg quality characteristics. The results shows that the 165 days egg production characteristics of the birds were, egg number 103 + 15, number of clutches 38+6, clutch size 3.0 +1.0, number of pauses 38 + 4, days pause 54 + 14 and pause length 2.0 + 1.0 days Significant (P<0.05) and positive relationship existed between egg number and clutch size (r=0.85) which was negatively related with number of clutches, number of pauses, days paused and pause length (r = -0.46 to -0.72). Age of quail hens significantly (P<0.01 - 0.05) influenced the measured characteristics, except albumen height, yolk width, albumen weight and shell membrane thickness, respectively. Body weight, egg weight and egg breadth increased with increase in age of th...