The Influence of Egg Weight on the Pre-Hatching and Post-Hatching Growth Rate in the Fowl

THE facts have been established that egg weight has a definite influence upon the weight of the chick at hatching and that the disadvantage produced by small eggs diminishes by the twelfth week. It has further been shown that the effect of egg weight on body weight does not start until late in embryonic development. In previous studies the effects of egg weight on feathering, hatchability, mortality and feed utilization as well as on body weight were determined. The object of this study was to determine any influence that egg weight might have on the shank length-body weight ratio as a measure of body conformation in broilers. Shank length has been compared with body weight since Wright (1932) attributed over-all growth to general size factors, and growth of head and limb regions to group factors. Lerner (1937a) first proposed growth gradients in the posterior limb for all breeds of fowl . . .