The Variability in the Gross Body Weight and the Weights of the Liver, Feathers and Blood of 131 Chickens

A better knowledge of the anatomy and especially a quantative knowledge of the domestic fowl is greatly needed, because of the commercial importance of the poultry industry and as well the frequent use of chickens for laboratory experiments. There have been many studies of the growth in gross body weight, with normal feeding and a few feeding experiments to illustrate the effect of various foods, but very little has been done on the size of the various organs. While searching the literature in the preparation of another paper, the senior author found some interesting data by Zaitschek (’08) on the live weight, the dressed weight, and the weight of the liver, feathers, and blood of 131 chickens. These data seemed to warrant further study, and so we have studied the variability of the gross and dressed body weights and the weights of the blood, feathers, and liver, and also the . . .