Egg production and certain behavioural characteristics and mortality pattern of indigenous chicken of India

Abstract

Summary: A survey to document the behaviour characteristics and mortality pattern of indigenous chicken of Kerala and a field egg recording study to record egg production characteristics of these birds were conducted. Flight distance and height was 13.29 and 3.97 m, respectively. The territory radius of cocks was 121.15 m. The chick survivability at 4 weeks of age was 64.98 percent. The day-old and 8^th week body weights were 28.83 and 347.24 g, respectively. The 20^th and 40^th week body weight of males were 1,428.42 and 1,936.67 g and that of females were 1,114.04 and 1,445.63 g, respectively. The mortality up to 72 weeks was 69.38 percent and major cause of mortality during chick, grower and layer stage were mongoose (44.63 percent), wolf (24.29 percent) and diseases (52.18 percent) respectively. The fertility was 71.22 percent and hatchability on total and fertile egg set were 62.26 and 87.42 percent, respectively. There were 2.13 clutches in a laying cycle with inter-clutch intervals of 1.11 days. The average clutch size and number of eggs per cycle were 7.27 and 14.32, respectively. The egg number up to 72 weeks on hen-day and hen-housed basis was 116.81 and 85.84, respectively and the eggs were laid in 7.7 cycles. The age at first egg and average age at sexual maturity were 155 and 199.26 days, respectively. The egg weight at 28, 40 and 72 weeks of age was 37.80, 40.74 and 43.31 g, respectively, and egg mass per bird was 4,659.04 g. The broodiness and incubation pause were 26.03 and 121.75 days, respectively.