My area of interest is native chicken: We are trying to determine the sex maturity of local birds (cock and hen). What are the different method(s) used? I preferably would like to know a simple and effective method.
The methods of determining the sex of eggs fertilized include: The DNA-sexing Process estrogen Drmay determine embryo sex determination investigate HW antigens on suspicion of gross eggs fertilized eggs.
Thank you Mehran, I would like to know some behaviour of hen and cocks when mature.
I think your question is how to determine whether the cock or hen attained sexual maturity or not.
many thanks to all, Santosh, or anyone, do you have information to determine if the cock or hen attained sexual maturity (preferably a cheap method).
Actually , i understood what you looking for , i guess you want a behavioral or phenotype signs. Age of sexual maturity is approx is the age of the first egg for hens, you can study the average age of the first egg in your local lines. for cocks if you want the cheapest way but not very accurate, you have to monitor the mating behavior of the cocks the age of sexual maturity will be by the first successful fertilization.
you can make a pilot study using a group of the breed then, you will easily get approx age of sexual maturity for male and female. but be careful about the other factors that affect sexual maturity. from my previous experience, the age at sexual maturity is highly variable in local lines compared to commercial lines. good luck
The hours of daylight - increasing or decreasing depending on the time of year or the artificial light in your poultry house - also can have a major influence on the onset of sexual maturity. Be aware of that!
As per my experience with native chickens one of the ways to see if cock has attained sexual maturity is to observe for change in its voice (calls) and then start milking (Massage method) . Ideally in native chickens, production of semen starts after 22-24 weeks of age depending upon the breed and lighting period during growing stage.
In hens, it can only be determined by looking at age at first as suggested by A. S. Ahmed above. Hope it helps.
As previous said above, age at sexual maturity in hen is known as the age of the first egg lay. But since there is a great genetic diversity amongs native chicken's population, you may observe a great variation of that age in the same population of hen. For the cock, you just have to monitor the male in presence of female: the mature cock will try to cross the female.
The Physiological maturity depends on the species and race, can be early or late in genetically improved poultry. I agree with some colleagues, but I think your focus should be to observe the following points: 1 - secondary sexual characteristics (crest, barb, feathering,, vocalization, sexual activity and copulation); 2 - physiological characteristics (hormone levels, presence of ovulation observed as follicular development and first egg, dilated pelvic bones, semen production in cock, etc.). The photoperiod is a determinate conditional; however, different chickens genetically unimproved may present different responses to photoperiod. Best regard.
Sexula maturity of male birds can be determined by Wattle development amongst others
Thank you all for the help. Abel could you please elaborate on it or do you have papers or other sources for the wattle?
You can that by visible traits such as well developed comb, wattle, cock crow, and attempt to mate in cocks while in hen red comb, well developed pelvic bones, size...etc
The sexual maturity of hen determine by lay the first egg , the cock sex maturity determine by production of mature sperms that can fertilize egg .
Good Luck
The best way in hen is egg laying but first eggs are not generaly good for incubation.
For cock, they are signs such as vocalization that is the first sign showing arrival of sexual maturity. You also have well developped comb, weattle and constant mating. After that, you can check for fertile eggs during incubation or for sperm quality after its collection.
Dear François
Many signs such as cock crowing may be given indicator for puberty of cockerel but not sexual maturity , the production of mature semen capable to fertilize egg give the meaning of cock sexual maturity
Good Luck
Of course dear Hassan.
But it cannot be possible to use it at the level of farm. Research for my point of view must goes with development. Our role is to find numbers of external characters that can be positively correlate to what is interesting for us (in this case, early detection of high sperm quality).
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