PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF RAJASRI BIRDS REARED UNDER DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF MANAGEMENT

Abstract

A study was conducted during the year 2010- 11 to evaluate the productive and reproductive performance of Rajasri, a backyard poultry variety At seven weeks of age 500 birds were randomly distributed into five treatment groups with four
replicates having 20 Female and 5 Males in each group and reared under different systems of management. The mean hen day production was significantly (P<0.05) better with control group (54.07%) and least with 20% and 40% ad lib. (20.93 and 27.13%) groups. Scavenging at farmer’s backyard resulted in 35.83% and at farm it was less (32.47%). The egg weights ranged between 50.41 and 53.87 grams.There were no significant differences among treatment groups for egg quality parameters except yolk colour. The control group recorded the least (88.42%) fertility, while SI-20%, SI-40%, SC-F and SC recorded 94.86, 94.71, 93.62 and 93.43 percent fertility respectively. The hatchability on TES was significantly (P<0.05) least with control group (80.86%), while better in SI-20% (88.92%) followed by SC (88.38%), SI-40% (87.73%) and SC-F (84.99%) groups respectively than control.