Specific features of chicken reproduction in small farms in North-West Russia

Abstract

Modern farms are represented by different numbers of poultry, specialization and production volumes. In some cases, they are equipped with leading productive egg crosses. The aim of the research was to study the features of the reproduction of chickens in the conditions of farms specializing in the production of commercial eggs in the North-West region of the Russian Federation. The farm producing commercial chicken eggs in the Pskov region used the Loman Brown poultry, purchased from the Severo-Pskovskiy complex, as a parent flock. Since 2020, the farm has begun its own reproduction, using chickens and roosters purchased earlier and raised on the farm. The evaluation of the results of such use of the cross in a farm was carried out according to the indicators of safety, hatchability and early maturity of hatching, as well as the weight of the livestock obtained.The selection for the increased weight of the hatching egg did not affect the weight of the received adult reproductive livestock and is at the lower border of the average value for the region. Indicators of hatching eggs in terms of hatchability, safety and early maturity of hatching deviated from the first generation of hatching by 5%. The hatchability was 80%; received chickens with developmental pathology - 1%. At hatching, in males and females, phenotypic differences were not revealed, which complicates the early and effective selection of females for the formation of a productive livestock on the farm.