Commercial Poultry Production and Hatchery Management

PRINCIPLE

• The important purpose of poultry keeping is to get maximum egg and meat production, with minimum inputs by maintaining mortality to normal levels.
• To achieve these goals of productive performance, one must have knowledge of body systems and their functions, which forms the base for production.
• The reproductive and digestive systems are to be studied with this principle only.
• The male reproductive system of birds is extremely simple, consisting of two testes, each having an epididymis and vas deferens that lead to the copulatory organ.
• The male bird is unique among domestic animals in that the testes are located along the backbone within the abdominal cavity and in front of the top lobe of the kidneys.
• During non-breeding season the testes are difficult to locate due to their small size, but during breeding season they may grow as much as several hundred times their non-breeding size
• Normally, semen is stored in the vas deferens where it is diluted with lymph fluid; both are ejaculated as a mixture during copulation.
• The penis of the male chicken is quite small. Lymph enters the penis to form a mild erection, but it does not penetrate the cloaca.
• Rather, during mating, the cloaca of the female opens to expose the end of the oviduct where semen is deposited.
• The reproductive system of hen consists of ovary and oviduct.

Ovary

• At the time of early embryonic development, two ovaries and two oviducts exist, but the right set atrophies, leaving only the left ovary and oviduct at hatching.
• Prior to egg production, the ovary is a quiet mass of small follicles containing ova.
• At maturity, the ova are released from the ovary to enter the oviduct by a process known as ovulation .

Oviduct

• The oviduct is a long tube through which the yolk passes and where the remaining portions of the egg are secreted. The oviduct consists of 5 segments:
  • Infundibulum
  • Magnum
  • Isthmus
  • Uterus
  • Vagina

S.No.	Part of the oviduct	Functions	Duration of developing egg stays	Length (cm)
1	Infundibulum	Picking and engulfing the yolk	15 minutes	9
2	Magnum	Secretion of thin and thick albumen	3 hours	33
3	Isthmus	Formation of shell membranes	1 hour & 15 minutes	10
4	Uterus	Formation of shell	18 to 21 hours (Average 20 hours)	10
5	Vagina	Oviposition	2 to 5 minutes	6
Total			24 hours : 35 minutes	68