Natural egg incubation of high-productive meat cross of chickens
The article presents study outcomes of the natural egg incubation of the high-productive meat cross Cobb 500 under brood hens of the Bantam breed, as well as indicators of the subsequent offspring growth. The purpose of research is to obtain data on the success of natural egg incubation and the subsequent offspring growth of meat cross-breeding of chickens to determine the practicability of studying the parameters of natural incubation with modern technical means, to identify the most important parameters of natural incubation and to develop new temperature conditions for artificial incubation. Method of research. The research was conducted in 2019 on the basis of the hatchery “Galichya Gora” of the FSBEI of Higher education “Voronezh State University”. The brood hens were kept in laboratory conditions in separate coops. Each of the 3 brood hens was laid with 4 eggs of the Cobb 500 cross from one batch. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the results of natural incubation and the indicators of subsequent offspring growth were studied for meat cross of chickens, to which natural incubation was not previously applied. Video monitoring of the incubation process has allowed to establish a significant motion activity of the brood hens during the incubation process. Results. As a result of the study, it was found that the decrease in egg mass during the incubation period is 12.1 ± 0.20 %, the average weight of the chicken from the initial mass of the incubation egg is 71.2 ± 0.34 %. The offspring was evaluated at 9.8 points according to the Pasgar©Score system. On the 40th day, the live weight of broilers was 2471 ± 19.4 g. Based on the study, it was concluded that natural brooding provides high incubation rates and offspring quality of high-productive meat cross Cobb 500. The practicability of studying the parameters of natural incubation of meat cross eggs with modern technical means is established.