Egg Production Characteristics of Nigerian Indigenous Chickens, Rhode Island Red and Their Crossbred Progenies

Background and Objective: The crossbreeding program in livestock production as it is the likely genetic basis of hybrid vigor. It is also expected to be one of the factors causing the genetic relationships between crossbred and purebred performance characteristics. This study was focused on egg production characteristics of pure Nigerian indigenous chickens, Rhode Island Red and their crossbred progenies in the derived guinea savanna environment of Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 birds were sourced and used as parents for the experiment. This consists of 5 cocks and 15 hens each of naked neck-NN, normal feather-NF, frizzled feather-FF, Fulani ecotype-FE and Rhode Island Red-RIR chickens. Data were obtained on egg production characteristics (body weight at first egg, age at first egg, weight of first egg, egg number, hen day egg production and hen housed egg production). Results: The obtained results depicted a significant (p<0.05) difference in egg production parameters, frizzled feather (FF) had the lighter body weight at first egg (1258.33 g), RIR×FF comes to lay earlier (140 days) while RIR had the highest weight of first egg (45.33 g), hen-day (80.35%) and hen-housed (75.35%). The parameters on fertility and hatchability also indicated that crossbred NN×NN had the highest fertility and hatchability rates of 95.24 and 100%, respectively. Conclusion: It was concluded that RIR genetics component may be used to improve the local stocks of egg production characteristics in the derived savanna environment of Nigeria.