NCUBATION WEIGHT LOSS, FERTILITY AND HATCHABILITY OF JAPANESE QUAIL (Coturnixcoturnixjaponica) EGGS AT DIFFERENT AGES IN LAY

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effect of age on the Incubation weight loss, fertility and hatching characteristics of Japanese quail eggs. One hundred and fifty (150) Japanese quails comprising of one hundred100) females and fifty (50) males were selected from 5 weeks old quail flock on the farm. Eggs were collected from the birds in triplicate for incubation at different ages i.e. the 9th, 13th and 17th weeks of age of the birds. Data were collected on incubation weight loss, fertility, hatching traits and subjected to One-way Analysis of variance. Age of Japanese quail did not significantly (P>0.05) affect fertility. Hatchability was better at 13(74.64%) and 17(70.09%) weeks of age. The highest (P<0.05) embryonic mortality was recorded at the 9th week of age and chick weight varied consistently with egg weight. Based on the result obtained in this study, it could be concluded that age did not influence incubation weight loss, fertility and hatch weight. Hence, eggs for hatching should be selected after four weeks in lay.