Effect of Calcium Level of the Developing and Laying Ration on Hatchability of Eggs and on Viability and Growth Rate of Progeny of Young Pullets

COMMERCIAL hatcherymen have observed that fertile eggs from pullets just starting to lay do not hatch well and that mortality rate in the chicks which do hatch is abnormally high. Sunde and Bird (1959) observed that both fertility and hatchability of fertile eggs was much lower in eggs from pullets just starting to lay than it was in eggs laid six weeks later. Much of the embryonic mortality in the first laid eggs occurred during the first week of incubation. Such dietary factors as vitamin levels, protein levels, antibiotic levels and vegetable vs. animal protein were found to have no effect on improving the hatchability of eggs from young breeder hens. This paper will present evidence that level of calcium in the laying diet may affect hatchability of eggs and growth and viability of chicks from pullets just starting to lay. EXPERIMENTAL The data to be presented were secured as …