The Relevance of Egg Shape, Colouration and Day of Lay in Japanese Quails Production

The study was conducted to determine the effect of egg shape, coloration pattern and the day of lay of Japanese quail on fertility, hatchability and sex of chicks. A total of 100 quails (50 males and 50 females) of 4-5 weeks of age were paired in a ratio of 11 in cages. Eight hundred and nineteen (819) eggs collected for the duration of 5 weeks and were sorted into twelve (12) groups on the basis of their shape, colour and day of lay. The eggs were incubated at various batches. The chicks were maintained into their various groups after hatching and reared for 5-6 weeks their sex was determined. It was observed that there was no significant (Pgreater than0.05) difference between the observed egg shapes and colour patterns in Japanese quail. However, the result showed that the number of spherical oval eggs were more than the conical oval eggs. The tan coloured eggs were more than the brown eggs while the straw coloured eggs were few in the distribution. There was no significant (Pgreater than0.05) difference between the shape, colour, day of lay and batch of incubation on sex of the chicks. The result of the effect of egg shape, colour, day of lay and batch of incubation on fertility showed that there were no significant (Pgreater than0.05) influence of egg shape, colour, day of lay and batch of incubation on fertility. Egg shape, colour, day of lay and batch of incubation had no significant (Pgreater than0.05) influence on hatchability but the combinations of egg shape, colour and day of lay had a significant (P0.05) influence on embryonic mortality. However, the result revealed that spherical oval shape had less embryonic mortality (10.5 %) compared to conical oval (21.8). the combination of spherical oval day 1 had minimum embryonic mortality of less than 10 % (8.5 %) while conical oval day 1 brown had highest embryonic mortality of 38.9 %. egg shape, colour, day of lay and batch of incubation had no significant (Pgreater than0.05) influence on attainment of sexual maturity but the combination of egg shape, colour and day of lay had a significant (P