Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
TURKISH JOURNAL OF VETERINARY & ANIMAL SCIENCES, cilt.26, sa.4, ss.723-728, 2002 (SCI-Expanded)
This research was carried out with the aim of determining the effects of egg weight on the hatching characteristics of ostrich eggs The effect of egg weight (small 1200 1400 g medium 1401 1600 g large >1600 g) on the hatchability of fertile eggs and hatchability of total eggs was found to be significant (P<001) Hatchability of fertile eggs was determined to be 67 74 74 42 and 64 28% and hatchability of total eggs was determined to be 43 75 50 00 and 41 86% for the small medium and large egg weight groups respectively The effects of egg weight on early medium and late embryonic death were also found to be significant (P< 0 01) The early embryonic death rates were determined to be 9 68 9 30 and 10 91 % medium embryonic death rates were determined to be 6 46 4 65 and 7 35% and late embryonic death rates were determined to be 16 12 11 63 17 46% for the small medium and large weight groups respectively The effects of egg weight on egg weight loss were found to be significant (P<0 05) Eggs with medium weight exhibited a weight loss of 13 94% which was close to the optimum The effect of egg weight on chick weight was also found to be significant (P<0 01) The chick weight increased as the egg weight increased The effect of egg weight on hatching time was found to be significant (P<0 05) Incubation time was longer for the large egg weight groups compared with the small or medium weight groups.