The Relation of Body Weight of Turkey Hens to Egg Production, Egg Weight, Percentage of Hatch and Viability of Poults: Is the Size of Turkey Hens Related to Hatchability?

Abstract

DISCUSSION AND RESULTSRECORDS being available for Missouri as collected under the National Turkey Improvement Plan, an analysis of these records has been made for the years 1947 and 1948 for the Bronze and White Holland varieties trapnested for the U.S.R.O.M. breeding stage.Tables 1, 2 and Figure 1 show that body weight of Bronze turkey hens was related to the percentage of hatch of all eggs set; in that eggs laid by the largest hens tended to hatch poorly, whereas eggs laid by the smaller hens hatched best. It is recognized that small numbers of hens are involved but the relationship is so consistent that it is evidently real.Correlation coefficients (Table 5) calculated for the 1947 data show a negative relationship between body size and percentage of hatch of all eggs and a positive correlation between body size and egg weight.From these same data it may be .