Year: 2015 | Month: August | Volume 5 | Issue 2
The Effect of Cock: Hen Ratio on Reproduction Performance of Koekoek Chickens in the Lowlands of Lesotho
Abstract:
The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of cock: hen ratio on the reproductive performance of Koekoek chickens. Fifty seven hens and nine cocks were randomly allocated to three cock: hen ratio treatments in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The cock: hen treatments were 1:3, 1:6 and 1:10 at 37 weeks of age. The birds were allocated into nine pens and each treatment was replicated three times. Thirty eggs were incubated from each replicate hence 270 eggs were used. Data was collected and analyzed using SPSS (17.00). The results revealed that the chickens that were assigned to cock: ratio of 1:10 performed similar to the ones in the sex ratios of 1:3 and 1:6 in terms of fertility. Cock: hen ratio did not have any effect on hatching percentage and embryo mortality. Therefore, when looking at the cost of raising cocks and the level of infighting among the cocks, it would be advisable for the farmers to rear one cock for every ten hens. Koekoek chickens, egg size, fertility rate, hatchability, embryo mortality
Print This Article Email This Article to Your Friend
