The significance of egg shell color on the pheasant hatching production results

Abstract

Based on studies carried out in 2011, on the impact of genetic factors on hatching and vitality of pheasant chicks and young, a strong causal relation has been confirmed between the egg shell color and certain production parameters, such as the embryonic death rate. A model was based on determining egg shell color for 420 eggs. Shell color of eggs obtained in aviaries is very versatile and can be expressed in almost 25 color tones. All these nuances are embedded in the seven basic tones. The result shows that embryonic death rate is 85% for lime skim eggs, 50% for lime spots eggs, 50% for green eggs, 30% for blue-green eggs, 25% for dark grey eggs, 25% for brown eggs and 20% for light brown eggs. Results of this study were applied to one of the biggest pheasant farm in Serbia, "Ristovaca" in Bac. The total number of examined eggs was 216,188 of which 191,240 were fertilized, and 24,948 had dead embryos. Thus the total number of hatched pheasant chicks was 155,690. The eggs were classified by their color and related to their hatchability status. When total number of eggs (216,188) was used with above mentioned parameters, almost the same results (155,763) were obtained, confirming the correctness of the obtained results.© 2013 Zoological Society of Pakistan.