Abstract

The primary need for an egg producing breed of fowl that will be more immune to the Indian climate and conditions than imported poultry are, has led the association to conduct experiments to endeavour to discover such a breed. After following up some experiments in crossing Chittagong hens with Rhode Island Red males the experiment was relinquished owing to two drawbacks: (1) the prevalence of broodiness in the progeny, and (2) the pugilistic tendencies of the progeny, who from chickenhood fought so cons- tantly that the area of land required for rearing them satisfactorily was not available. Otherwise the progeny were fine birds and fair layers. A further experiment has been made between crossing local hens, with high producing Leghorn males. These experiments are still going on, but they do not seem to indicate any remarkable improvement in the egg yield of the progeny. Individual high records have been obtained but flock averages do not tend to indicate that Indian village hens mated to pure bred males will produce a definite increase in egg yield, the dominant zero breeding factor of the Indian hen, nullifying the attainment of better flock production in the progeny. In all other respects the improvement is marked.

Keywords: