Avian Production Management

FERTILITY AND HATCHABILITY

Fertility

• Refers to capacity to reproduce. It is the factor, which determines the successful offspring that may be obtained from a given number of eggs.

Factors influencing fertility

• Sex Ratio
• Age of breeders
• Length of duration between mating
• Diseases and management practices.
• Fertility is expressed as % of fertile eggs in a set of total eggs incubated.
• Fecundity-Producing many offspring.
• Fecundate – To fertilize

Hatchability

• Is defined in two ways 
  • Based on the fertile eggs set (FES) 
  • Based on the total eggs set (TES)  
• Refers to the % of chicks hatched to the eggs set.
• Size, shape and condition of egg shell are important for hatching. Very large and very small eggs do not hatch well.
• Eggs having abnormal shape show low heritability.
• Condition and duration of storage of eggs prior to incubation as well as setter and hatcher environment affect hatchability  (or) The quality of fertilized egg to produce normal embryonic development with normal emergence of the young when incubated.