Body Weight Relationships of Newly Hatched Japanese Quail

Egg and body weight relationships were studied in Japanese quail. The repeatability of weight of eggs laid during a period of 12 days was 0.76. The average weight loss of eggs exposed to pen conditions during the first 12 hours following oviposition was 0.036 ± 0.018 g. The correlation between dam body weight and egg weight was 0.32. On an intrasire basis, the correlations were 0.80 between egg and hatching weight, 0.76 between egg and day-old weight, and 0.84 between hatching and day-old weight. These correlations are very similar to those reported for the domestic fowl.