Hatchability of Deshi, Fayoumi, RIR and Sonali chicken in forced draft incubator and under broody hens in Bangladesh

S S Jahan, M S Islam¹, M A R Howlider², M J U Sarder, M A Islam and Z M A Hossain³

Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh.
Syed_jahan@yahoo.com
¹ Department of Zoology, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh.
² Department of Poultry Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh - 2202, Bangladesh.
³ District Livestock Office, Rajshahi, Directorate of Livestock Services, Bangladesh.

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the hatchability potentials of Indigenous, Fayoumi, Rhode Island Red and Sonali (Rhode Island Red X Fayoumi) chicken and compared among the genotypes by using forced draft incubator and broody hens. A total of 384 (96 from Deshi, 96 Fayoumi, 96 RIR and 96 Sonali) hatchable eggs were obtained from a commercial hatchery for the study allowed to hatch in forced draft incubator and under broody hens. The traits considered were egg weight (g), chick weight (g/b), chick weight as percent of egg weight, dead in germ (%), dead in shell (%) and hatchability (%).

Egg weight was the highest in RIR followed by Sonali, Fayoumi and Deshi. Chick weight was the highest in RIR, similar and intermediate in Fayoumi and Sonali and the lowest in Deshi. Chick weight was higher from eggs hatched under the broody hens than in those hatched in incubator. Genotype did not interact with method of hatching to influence chick weight. Chick weight % of egg weight was higher in RIR, but similar and lower in Fayoumi, Deshi, and Sonali. Dead in germ, dead in shell and hatchability were not altered by the interaction of genotype and hatching system. From the results of the study we conclude that hatching results for RIR rank the best and Deshi chicken seemed to be the worst in these traits.

Key words: breeds, hatching system, hatchability performance

Introduction

Livestock especially poultry is a promising sector for poverty reduction in Bangladesh. Approximately 140 millions chickens are scattered throughout 68000 villages in the country mostly of indigenous non-descript type. The production system for indigenous chickens is smallholder backyard scavenging in nature with each family keeping an average of 6-7 chickens to meet family requirements and as a source of cash income for immediate household expenses and nutrition. Local scavenging chicks are dominant in poultry production in Bangladesh. Smallholder poultry farmers produce 78% eggs and 86% meat under scavenging system (Alam 1995). The hens are used both for egg production and subsequent hatching of eggs. Broodiness is a common characteristic of the Deshi chicken and a hen incubates two or three clutches of eggs in every year. The broody hen hatches the chicks with very low costs. This is a great advantage for the rural people who have no access to electric incubators, which are more expensive and require a large amount of eggs. Broody hens are also the best trainees for their offspring in showing them how to look for feed (Islam 2003) and to tackle adverse situations i.e. finding protection from predators. For multiplication of any species of poultry, fertility and hatchability are the most important and vital contributing factors.

Fayoumi is an ancient breed from the Egypt for egg production, is well known poultry breed in Bangladesh. Now-a-day, it is a well established poultry breed throughout the world and is also popular breed in south east Asia and many other countries because of its high profitability with low cost. Farmers can easily rear this breed both in intensive and scavenging systems. Sonali breed is a cross breed, which had been produced from the cross of Rhode Island Red (RIR) cocks and Fayoumi hens. It has specially been advocated in terms of their higher egg production rate and better adaptability in rural situation (Alam 1997). Fertility and hatchability of Deshi chicken are higher than in exotic breeds, depending on season and brooding condition (Horst and Mathar 1989). Several factors are known to affect hatchability of eggs in the incubator. These include temperature and humidity control, conditions of the egg, and turning frequency. Tona et al (2003) indicated that turning in the first week of incubation enables proper formation of extra-embryonic membrane while in the last week avoids embryonic malpositioning. In a related study, Elibol and Brake (2004) confirmed that absence of turning resulted in presentation of the head in the small end of the egg. Eggs with heavier weight were hatched to heavier chicks. The relationship between egg weight and hatching weight for different poultry species has been studied by several researchers who concluded that egg weight is positively correlated with hatching weight. They also suggested that hatching weight can be predicted by some physical egg characteristics and mainly egg weight measured prior to setting (Saatci et al 2005). Badubi et al (2006) reported that 11 to 15 eggs were laid by Deshi hens and 6 to 10 chicks hatched. Ulmer-Franco et al (2010) reported light eggs hatched earlier than both medium and heavy eggs.

Material and methods

Location

The on-station experiment site was the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science farm of the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. The farm is situated 8 km North of the out campus of the University of Rajshahi. The on-farm trial was conducted in two villages named Meherchandi and Buthpara which are very near the university. The temperatures in the areas in summer and winter are 29°C and 23°C, respectively.

Management of hatchable eggs

Twelve farmers from above mentioned two villages having some experience on rearing chicken were selected. The involved farmers were provided a guideline to fulfill the objectives of the research. A total of 384 eggs from four genotypes of chicken : 96 Deshi, 96 Fayoumi, 96 RIR and 96 Sonali were collected from Rajabarihat Govt. Poultry Farm, Rajabarihat, Rajshahi and 96 Deshi chicken eggs were randomly collected from the above two villages at different sources. The eggs were of good size, uniformly calcified, clean, sound shell (without hair line crack) and standard shape and were selected at random. Half of the eggs were hatched in forced draft electric incubator and other half were hatched under Deshi broody hens. Twelve broody hens were used to incubate under village condition and distributed among the selected farmers of villages with one broody hen and 16 eggs from each of Deshi, Fayoumi, RIR and Sonali to hatch the eggs. Before setting the hens in a clean nest, the hens were treated with insecticide against parasites. A water container was kept in the incubation house to maintain proper humidity. The eggs were fumigated with formalin and potassium permanganate in the ratio of 1:2 for 15 minutes and then set into a Petersime electric incubator with the broad ends pointing upward. The weight of all hatchable eggs were taken by using an electronic digital balance. Then average weight was calculated and used. Number of eggs set for each individual group of breed was also recorded. In the incubation period, setting temperature was 37°C with humidity of 83% while the hatching temperature was 36.67°C with humidity of 87%. Number of eggs set for each individual breed was also recorded. The eggs were turned 12 times by automatic programming device in 24 hours at 2 hours interval. In the afternoon of the 18^th day of incubation, the eggs were transferred from the setting trays to different pedigree compartment of hatching trays according to the breed and replication. On 7th day of incubation, eggs were candled and infertile or clear eggs were removed. On18th day of incubation, the eggs were candled and those with evidence of living embryos were recorded and transferred from setting trays to different pedigree compartment of hatching trays according to the breeds and replications. The remaining eggs were candled and then broken for microscopic analysis to distinguish the eggs containing dead embryos (dead in germ) from the infertile ones (Photo 1).

Photo 1. Embryos dead in germ	Photo 2. Embryos dead in shell

At the end of 21st day, the unhatched eggs and pips were counted separately as dead in shell (Photo 2) according to breeds and replications.

The unhatched eggs were broken to confirm the day on which the embryos died and the hatch was taken out and observations with regard to number of normal chicks hatched, hatching weight and hatchability were calculated using the formula described by Sahin et al (2009). The distribution of hatching eggs to the breed, rearing systems and replications is in Table 1.

 Statistical analysis

Hatching records and the calculated variables were for a 4 (genotypes) × 2 (hatching method) factorial experiment in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with the help of a Computer package programme Genstat. Significant differences among the means were isolated by calculating Least Significant Differences (LSD).

Results and discussion

Egg weight was the highest  in RIR followed by Sonali, Fayomi and Deshi (Table 2; Figure 1). Egg weight did not differ for the hatching systems.  However, interaction between the genotypes and hatching systems were also significant (p<0.01). In general, it is believed that the larger the breed weight, larger is the egg weight. In this study egg weight found in RIR, Fayoumi, Sonali and Deshi chicken had positive relation with their weight at sexual maturity. Such an assumption of positive relation of mature weight with egg weight have been supported by many other researchers. Sazzad (1992) observed the egg weights of Fayoumi, RIR and Fayoumi × RIR were 41.4, 60.8 and 48.4g, respectively under farm management. The variation in egg weight may be attributable to the feed composition, feeding schedule and environment. Barua et al (1998) reported that egg weight of Fayoumi, RIR and RIR ♂ × Fayoumi ♀ was 37.0, 46.8 and 42.5g, respectively in scavenging. Saddey et al (2008) found that egg weight of White leghorn, RIR and Sinai chicken were 45.5g, 43.4g and 42.3g, respectively, which are lower than the present results. Lemlem and Tesfay (2010) observed egg weight of Fayoumi, RIR and Deshi chicken were 43g, 52.2g and 42.2g respectively supported by the present study. Fayeye et al (2005) reported that egg weight of Deshi chicken was 40.73g which is almost similar to the current investigation. Nonga et al (2010) reported that egg weight of Deshi chicken was 40.8g which is supported by the study result.

Figure 1. Effect of breed and hatching system on egg weight

Similar to the egg weight, the chick weight characteristics in the RIR chicken attained the highest value followed by Fayoumi, Sonali and Deshi (Figure 2).

 Chick weight was 3.84% higher for chicken hatched under broody hens in comparison with those hatched in the incubator. Effect of breed was significant but genotypes did not interact with hatching systems to influence chick weight. In general, it is believed that larger chicks are hatched out from the heavier eggs produced by larger breeds. This observation is in agreement with other findings (Ali et al 1993, Raju et al 1997, Costantini and Pahella 1982). Ali (1993) reported positive relationships of egg weight and chick weight for RIR, Sonali and Fayoumi. Heavier chicks were obtained from larger eggs. Raju et al (1997) and Costantini & Panella (1982) also observed a positive relationship of chick weight and egg weight.

Figure 2. Effect of breed and hatching system on chick weight

Chick weight as percent of egg weight was the highest in RIR (Figure 3) and lowest in Sonali. These results are in partial agreement with the findings of Rashid et al (2013) who found that chick weight as percentage of egg weight of Fayoumi was 67.1, in Desi 62.4 and 68.4 in crossbred birds. Chick weight was proportionately 4.52% higher under broody hens than those from the incubator. Chick weights (%) were higher under broody hens compared to those hatched in the incubator. The interaction between the genotypes and hatching systems was also significant. Dead in germ, dead in shell and hatchability were not influenced by genotypes, hatching systems and their interaction. This result partially contradicts that of  Salahuddin et al (1995) who observed increased hatchability of larger eggs and reduced dead in germ and dead in shell. Ahmed et al (1983) reported higher hatchability for eggs weighing 50-52g (78.1%) than those weighing 62g (60.2-70.3%). This result is in agreement with the present study. Mitrovic et al (1995) stated the poorest hatchability were obtained for the heaviest eggs which is supported by the present study. The hatchability of Fayoumi in the present study was higher than RIR and this is supported Kamar et al (1984) who found the hatchability in Fayoumi and RIR was 66.4 and 65.3%, respectively. Fayeye et al (2005) reported that hatchability of Deshi chicken was 48% which is contradict with the results. Lemlem and Tesfay (2010) found 78 % hatchability of Deshi chicken which is lower than in the present study.

Figure 3. Chick weight as % of egg weight for different breeds in two hatching systems

Conclusion

• Considering egg weight, chick weight and chick weight as percent of egg weight, it appeared that hatching results in RIR rank the best while Fayoumi and Sonali were intermediate. Regardless of hatching system, Deshi chicken seemed to be the worst in these traits.

Acknowledgments

This study was a part of the first author’s PhD work. He would like to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology for providing financial support, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, University of Rajshahi , Bangladesh for logistic support and also the Department of Poultry Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University for laboratory support and the farmers in the study areas for their cordial co-operation during this research.

References

Alam J 1997 Impact of smallholder livestock development project in some selected areas of rural Bangladesh. Livestock Research for Rural Development, 9 (3): Art. 93. : http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd9/3/bang932.htm

Ahmed M, Narahari D, Kothan D P and Khaavi M A 1983 Influence of egg weight, duration of storage, moisture loss and time of collection on hatchability of chicken eggs. Poultry Abstracts, 9(11): 271.

Alam J 1995 Livestock resources in Bangladesh present status and futures potential. Agricultural University Press Ltd. pp. 12-29.

Ali M I, Wahid M A, Howlider M A R and Yeasmin T 1993 Reproduction and growth of Rhode Island Red (RIR), Fayoumi (FO) and RIR×FO chicken in Bangladesh. Poultry Adviser, 24: 47-50.

Badubi S S, Rakereng M and Marumo M 2006 Morphological characteristics and feed resources available for indigenous chickens in Botswana. Livestock Research for Rural Development, 18(1): www.lrrd.org/lrrd18/1/badu18003.htm

Barua A, Howlider M A R and Yoshimura Y 1998 A study on the performance of Fayoumi, Rhode Island Red and Fayoumi × Rhode Island Red chickens under rural condition of Bangladesh. Asian Australian Journal of Animal Science, 11(6): 635-641.

Costantini F and Pahella F 1982 Correlations between egg weight, chick weight and broiler performance, Istituto di zoo colture, Perugia, Italy, 51(3): 35-40.

Elibol O and Brake J 2004 Identification of critical periods for turning broiler hatching eggs during incubation. British Poultry Science, 45(5): 631-637.

Fayeye T R, Adeshiyan A B and Olugbami A A 2005 Egg traits, hatchability and early growth performance of the Fulani-ecotype chicken.Livestock Research for Rural Development, 17(8): www.lrrd.org/lrrd17/8/faye17094.htm

Horst P and Mathar P K 1989 Position of local fowl for tropical oriented breding activities. Genotype × environment interaction in poultry production. Joue en Josas (France), pp. 159- 174.

Islam M K 2003 Effect of supplementary balanced feed and cafeteria feeding on the growth performance of Sonali (RIR×Fayoumi) chicks under semi-scavenging system M.S. Thesis on Animal Science. Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh.

Kamar G A R, Khalifa M K, Riad S A and Sarhan A A M 1984 Studies on semen characteristics, fertility and hatchability of Fayoumi, Plymouth Rock and Rhode Islan Red Cocks. Egyption Journal of Animal Production. Poultry Abstract, 13(7): 1349.

Lemlem A and Tesfay Y 2010 Performance of exotic and indigenous poultry breeds managed by smallholder farmers in northern Ethiopia.Livestock Research for Rural Development, 22 (7): www.lrrd.org/lrrd22/7/leml22133.htm

Mitrovic S, Hristov S, Vitorovic D and Petrovic M 1995 The effect of egg weight on incubation result in a line of hybro heavy hybrid fowls. Veterinarski Glasnik, Serbia, 49(9-10): 595-599.

Nonga H E, Kajuna F F, Ngowi,H A and Karimuribo E D 2010 Physical egg quality characteristics of free-range local chickens in Morogoro municipality, Tanzania. Livestock Research for Rural Development, 22(12): http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd22/12/nong22218.htm

Raju M V L N, Chawak M M. Praharaj N K, Rao S V R and Mishra S K 1997 Interrelationships among eggs weight, hatchability, chick weight, post-hatch performance and rearing method in broiler breeders. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences, 67(1): 48-50.

Rashid A, Sohail H K, Ghulam A, Muhammad Yasin M A, Jameel M A K and Naveed I 2013 Effect of egg weight on hatchability and hatchling weight in Fayoumi, Desi and crossbred (Rhode Island Red X Fayoumi) chickens. Veterinary World, 6(9): 592-595.

Saadey M S, Galal A, Zaky H I and El Dein,A Z 2008 Diallel crossing analysis for body weight and egg production traits of two native Egyptian and two exotic chicken breeds. International Journal of Poultry Science, 7(1): 64-71.

Saatci M,Kirmizibayrak T, Aksoy A R and Tilki M 2005 Egg weight, shape index and hatching weight and interrelationships among these traits in native Turkish geese with different coloured feathers. Turkish Journal of Veterinary and Animal Science, 29: 353-357.

Sahin E H, Sengor E, Cetingul I S and Yardimci M 2009 Relationship between pre-incubation egg parameters from old breeder hens, egg hatchability and chick weight. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 8(1): 115-119.

Salahuddin M, Yeasmin, T and Howlider M A R 1995 Relationship between fertility and hatchability with egg weight of free range native Bangladeshi chicken. Bangladesh Journal of Training and Development, 8(1-2): 99-102.

Sazzad M H 1992 Comparative study on egg production and feed efficiency of different breeds of poultry under intensive and rural conditions in Bangladesh. Livestock Research for Rural Development, 4(3): 65-69. www.lrrd.org/lrrd4/3/bangla1.htm

Tona K, Onagbesan O, De Ketelaere B, Decuypere E and Bruggeman V 2003 Effect of turning duration during incubation on corticosterone and thyroid hormone levels, gas pressures in air cell, chick quality and juvenile growth. Poultry Science, 82: 1974-1979

Ulmer-Franco A M , Fasenko G M and O'Dea C E E 2010 Hatching egg characteristics, chick quality, and broiler performance at 2 breeder flock ages and from 3 egg weights. Poultry Science, 89(12): 2735-2742.

Received 28 October 2014; Accepted 28 November 2014; Published 1 January 2015

Go to top