Hatching Time and Hatchability in the Fowl

Abstract

HATCHABILITY of eggs as a trait of the fowl has been intensely studied. The scientific interest in this trait is a result of its great economic importance and its extreme biological complexity, which challenges the curiosity of investigators. Many factors, both genetic and environmental have been found to affect hatchability, although in many cases the results are not consistent, and in others the nature of the effect on hatchability is not clearly evident. The resulting voluminous literature from this work has been reviewed and interpreted by Landauer (1948), Taylor (1949) and Bernier, Taylor and Gunns (1951). A number of factors, both genetic and environmental, which have been shown to affect hatchability, have also been shown to affect the required hatching time of the embryo. Apparently, however, no workers have attempted to consider the relationship between hatching time itself and hatchability. The purpose of this paper is to present some preliminary…