Techniques for Measuring Sexual Effectiveness in Male Chickens

GUHL (1951), Wood-Gush and Osborne (1956) and Siegel (1959) have shown that male chickens may show measurable differences in sexual aggressiveness, as indicated by courting behavior and frequency of mating. McDaniel and Craig (1959), found that relative fertilizing capacity of males in natural matings could be predicted from sexual effectiveness scores. Siegel (1959) and Wood-Gush (1960) have presented evidence indicating a genetic basis for differences in male mating behavior within the White Plymouth Rock and Brown Leghorn breeds. However, McDaniel (1960) was unable to produce differences between strains of White Leghorns selected for high and low sexual effectiveness of the male. Difficulties in adequately measuring sexual behavior of chickens were recognized as possible confounding factors in McDaniel’s study and some of the questions raised led, in part, to the present investigation. Guhl (1961) has reviewed a number of studies on sexual behavior in chickens and has indicated some of the …