EFFECTS OF NOILER HEN STRAINS ON YOLK, ALBUMEN AND EXTERNAL EGG QUALITY PARAMETERS

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine the effects of Noiler hen strains on yolk, albumen and external egg quality parameters. A total of one hundred and twenty Noiler hens were divided into three treatments at the Bauchi State Agricultural Development Project. The hens were housed in a two tier battery cage, they were further divided into three treatments of forty hens each comprising three strains namely Brown, Black and Spotted. The results obtained from the study shows that strains did not significantly affect (p<0.05) yolk lenght, yolk width, youlk height, yolk weight and yolk colour. The results also indicates that (p<0.05) there were no significant difference in albumen length, albumen width and albumen height but it was observed that there was significant difference in albumen weight with Black (25.46g) and Spotted (25.40g) performing better than Brown (23.92g). Furthermore the results for external egg quality parameters showed that there was no significant difference (p<0.05) among the strains tested, this implies that strains did not affect egg weight, egg lenght, egg width, shell weigth and shell thickness. From the finding of this research it was therefore concluded that the strains studied did not influence yolk quality parameters and external egg quality parameters but significantly influenced albumen weight. It is recomended that either black, spotted or a combination of the two strains should be used by local farmer.