The effects of breeder age and laying period on hatchability and some external egg quality characteristics in breeder geese*

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the effects of breeder age, laying period on hatchability and some external egg characteristics in geese. 3240 eggs from one, two, three-year-old breeder flocks of geese were examined in two different periods (the second part of March + the first part of April and the second part of May + the first part of June). In the first period fertility rates were 84.63, 87.40, and 88.33%; hatching from set eggs were 62.40, 68.51, and 70.00%; hatching from fertilized eggs were 73.74, 78.37, and 79.28% in one, two, three-year-old breeder flocks of geese, respectively. In the second laying period, fertility rates were 82.40, 84.44, and 85.00%; hatching from set eggs were 69.63, 67.77, and 65.92%; hatching from fertile eggs were 84.62, 80.34, and 77.54% in one, two, three-year-old breeder flocks of geese, respectively. In terms of the laying period, the fertility rates were 86.79 and 83.95%, hatching from set eggs were 66.97 and 67.77%; hatching from fertilized eggs were77.13 and 80.83%; the embryonic mortality rates were 16.04 and 12.16%, respectively. The differences in egg weight (P <0.001) and shape index (P <0.01) between geese in different breeder ages were found to be statistically significant. The highest egg weight was 176.41 g in 3-year-old breeder geese, while the highest shape index was seen in the 1-year-old breeder geese with 65.78%. According to these findings, whereas laying period only affects shape index, breeder age affects both egg weight and shape index. In addition, hatchability characteristics were relatively higher in two, three-year-old breeders than one-year-old and the first period of the laying season. © 2022, Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.