Production traits and hatching of a Barred Rock 1 pure line, its feather sexable strains and their crosses

Abstract

The study was carried out to identify some production traits of the pure Barred Rock 1 (BR1) line and rapid × slow feathering line crosses derived from the BR1 pure line, in addition to F1 crosses of all these dam lines with Rhode Island Red 1 sire line. The BR1 line previously used a brown layer dam line for barred/non-barred day-old chick auto-sexing and synthetic slow and rapid wing feathering lines. Parent lines showed significant differences in sexual maturity and egg production (P < 0.01) and early embryonic mortality (P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference in weight at sexual maturity, average egg weight, hatchability of fertile eggs, hatchability of total eggs set, and middle and late embryonic mortalities. A significant difference was found among F1 crosses with respect to weight at sexual maturity (P < 0.05), but no significant difference (P > 0.05) could be determined for age at sexual maturity and egg production. Overall, rapid feathering hens had better production traits than slow feathering hens. The dual crossbred parent lines exhibited almost the same level of egg production traits compared with the pure line.