Research Article
Joanna Kucharska-Gaca, Marek Adamski, Joanna Kuźniacka, Emilia Kowalska
Department of Poultry Breeding and Animal Products Evaluation, UTP University of Science and Technology, Mazowiecka 28, 85-084 Bydgoszcz, Poland
Abstract. Goose husbandry is characterized by considerable diversity of goslings in terms of body weight. These discrepancies result from a~long laying performance. During different reproductive seasons females lay eggs of different weight. Due to a~positive correlation, egg weight influences body weight of goslings. The influence of egg weight on body weight of geese after rearing and fattening has been investigated. The influence of egg weight on the final body weight of geese as well as egg weight loss during incubation and hatchability indices of chicks have been determined. The research was carried out on 896 hatching eggs of White Kołuda® geese. 160 birds were used for rearing and fattening. The experiment showed a~significant influence of egg weight on egg weight loss in percentage terms during hatching. The biggest loss was recorded in the smallest eggs. Egg weight also influenced the mortality of embryos during incubation. By day 25, the highest mortality was in lighter eggs (below 180 g), whereas, in the last 4 days, the biggest number of unhatched chicks was observed in eggs with more than 181 g. The lowest weight was obtained in chicks from group i~(89 g), and the highest in IV (133 g). Despite significant differences in the weight of one-day-old chicks in week 16, after the end of fattening, no statistically significant differences in weight between the groups were shown. The time of the occurrence of the phenomenon of growth compensation of birds in rearing was determined for the period between weeks 10 and 16 of life.
Keywords: goose, egg weight, incubation, weight loss, rearing
Accepted: 5 Nov 2016
Published online: 5 May 2017
Accesses: 1100
Kucharska-Gaca, J., Adamski, M., Kuźniacka, J., Kowalska, E., (2016). Influence of the weight of hatching eggs on the hatchability indices and on the body weight of geese in rearing and after fattening with oats . Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 15(3), 67–82. DOI: 10.21005/asp.2016.15.3.06.