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INTRODUCTION POULTRY breeders are finding that laying cages are a useful aid in poultry breeding. Most breeders using cages are resorting to artificial insemination in order to reproduce their breeding stocks. Further information is needed concerning semen yields of males to facilitate the increased use of artificial insemination. The purpose of this paper is to report the results from a study on the yields of semen among inbred lines and crosses of S. C. White Leghorns. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Burrows and Titus (1939) observed that crossbred (B. P. Rocks×R. I. Reds) cockerels averaged over 1.0 cc. semen per bird per collection. They obtained a significant correlation between testes size and semen production. They concluded that 61 percent of the variation in semen production was due to differences in testes size. Wheeler and Andrews (1943) obtained results which indicate a seasonal variation in production of semen in Barred Plymouth Rock males… .

SKARD (1937) listed ten classes of female mating behavior, ranging from acceptance to complete avoidance of the male, but Murchison (1935) and Guhl et al. (1945) recognized three major classes. These are crouching or sex invitation, avoidance of the male, and escaping from the male during an attempted mating. Phillips (1914) reported that the hen was the factor controlling compatibility. The male seemed to approach the hen regardless of her individuality and the completion of the mating was controlled by the hen. Upp (1927) found that there was great variation in the number of matings and apparently a definite preference was shown for certain hens. Guhl et al. (1945) observed the following correlations between various mating activities of females. A positive correlation of 0.56 (P>0.01) was obtained between rank in “sex invitation” and mating rank indicating that hens which “invite” the males more often were mated more often. They also . . .

THE first scientific recognition of dominance relations or social organization in flocks of Gallus domesticus was made by Schjelderup-Ebbe in 1922. This observation has since been confirmed by Sanctuary (1932), Masure and Allee (1934), Murchison (1935), Skard (1937) and many others. Wood-Gush (1955) has published a review of literature on the behavior of the domestic chicken. Sanctuary (1932) obtained results which indicate that birds which were subordinates in flocks were delayed in reaching sexual maturity. Masure and Allee (1934) and Collias (1943) had shown that not only did high ranking birds have precedence to food but also displaying greater freedom of the pen. Guhl and Allee (1944) observed that individuals in socially unstable alternating flocks laid fewer eggs than they did when isolated or than their fellows did as members of socially organized control flocks. These same individuals lost weight and also consumed less food. The alternating hens in the…

THE mating behavior of the adult cock has been described by Skard (1937). Similar mating behavior activities have been observed and described by Guhl et al. (1945), Domm and Davis (1948), Wood-Gush (1954) and Williams and McGibbon (1955). Wood-Gush (1954) found that each cock performed certain actions at fairly characteristic frequencies. Guhl (1951) observed that there were differences of mating activity between White Leghorn cocks with varying genetic backgrounds. He observed that the rate at which a given cock performed in one category of sex behavior was not necessarily indicative of his activity levels in another category. Differences in the rate at which cocks mate had been reported by Heuser (1916), Penquite et al. (1929), and Skard (1937). Sufficient data are not available to show all the relationships of the various mating behavior activities of the male fowl. Data are presented in this report to show some of the many …

GOWE (1949) has reported that the duration of fertility, measured as the number of days a hen remains fertile after artificial insemination, was a good measure of fertility of both males and females. As Gowe has shown that duration of fertility is a good measure of fertility, the question has arisen whether this would be a good measure to evaluate fertility among inbred lines that have similar coefficients of inbreeding, and are similar in reproductive performance. The data reported in this paper were collected and analyzed in order to determine if differences in duration of fertility could be observed among inbred lines of poultry. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Curtis and Lambert (1929) observed that the mean duration of fertility of females, as obtained after pen matings were discontinued, was 10.7 ± 0.4 days. The extreme duration of fertility in this study was 21 days. Nicholaides (1934) reported the average duration of …

Two courtship behaviors of the male fowl have been observed. Skard (1937) described the waltzing or dancing court. It consists of lowering and fluttering the wing on the opposite side from the female, dancing with a series of short, quick steps around the female and vocalizing throughout the entire movement. Guhl et al. (1945) observed the feeding court or “tidbitting.” It consists of the male grasping a piece of edible or non-edible material with his beak, dropping it and vocalizing. In a study of the mating behavior of the domestic fowl, another method of courtship has been observed among males. It consists of the male moving to a darkened corner or section of the pen, settling down in the litter, and using his feet and body to form a nest-like depression in the litter. Throughout the process the male vocalizes to the females. This courtship behavior was called a nesting …