Relation of Male to Female Ratio in New Hampshire Breeder Flocks to Fertility of Eggs

A MAJOR item of expense in producing hatching eggs is keeping male birds. The fact that some hatching egg producers use as many as 10 to 12 males per each 100 females suggests that the number of males kept in breeder flocks may not always be consistent with the most economical production of hatching eggs with high fertility. A review of the literature reveals that the published data on the relation of male to female ratio on fertility is scant. Byerly and Godfrey (1937) observed that fertility decreased in a linear fashion as the number of females per male increased. They found that fertility dropped from about 95 percent when the male to female ratio was 1 to 4 to 35 percent when the ratio was 166 to 1. In single male matings, Hays and Sanborn (1939) found that a range of 1 to 14 in the number of females . . .