The Influence of Time of Mating on Fertility

Abstract

Malmstrom (1943) observed that when pullets with a membranous egg in the uterus were inseminated with 0.05 c.c. of semen, the eggs subsequently produced in a 10-day period were more fertile than were the eggs laid by a group of individuals inseminated at other stages of egg formation. Fertility was least (32.6 percent) when the insemination was made with a hard shell egg in the uterus and greatest (70.0 percent) when a membranous egg was in the shell gland. If, at the time of insemination, no egg was in the process of formation in the oviduct, a fertility of 64.3 percent was recorded. With an egg in the isthmus, 55.2 percent of the eggs laid following insemination were fertile. Where there was a possibility of an egg being in one of the more anterior divisions of the oviduct at time of insemination, fertility was low (48.4 percent). It is well . . .