The Effect of Certain Groups of Environmental Factors upon the Expression of Broodiness

BROODINESS is, to some extent, a detriment to egg production of chickens even with modern methods of management. The influence of environment on chickens has received considerable attention, but mostly from the standpoint of egg production without particular reference to broodiness. The investigations herein reported were made at the National Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, Maryland, as exploratory tests of the effects of some environmental factors, physical and psychological, on the expression of broodiness by chickens whose previous records had shown that they possessed various degrees of broodiness. The purpose of these investigations was more to obtain an indication, if possible, of the extent to which broodiness, and incidentally egg production, could be influenced by psychological stimuli than to evaluate any specific stimulus or group of stimuli. The authors realize that some of the data are not as complete as could be desired, but feel that the results, such as they . . .