Abstract:
A survey based experiment was conducted from November 2010 to April 2011 in 196 households
to assess egg handling and qualities of scavenging chickens reared in highland, midland and
lowland agro-ecological zones of Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. For egg quality determination,
among 196 households, 30 of them who keep only local chickens were identified from each agroecology from which 588 eggs (196 eggs from each agro-ecology) were collected. The flock size in
highland, midland and lowland agro-ecologies was 8.5, 7.4 and 8.4 chickens, respectively. The
results indicated that about 95% and 70% of the respondents fumigate day old chicks with smoke
and clip tail feathers, respectively. The average age at first egg lay was 6.94, 6.43 and 6.57 months
for highland, midland and lowland agro-ecologies, respectively. The survivability of chickens in
highland, midland and lowland agro-ecological zones was 55.0%, 61.4% and 55.1%, respectively.
On the average 79.1% hatchability, 58.3% chick survivability was found in the study area. The
observed values of egg weight, egg length, egg width, yolk height, albumen height and Haugh unit
were significantly (p< 0.05) different between the investigated agro-ecologies. Accordingly, all
these traits were (p< 0.05) higher in midland than those of highland and lowland agro-ecological
zones. Agro-ecology did not affect shape index, shell thickness, yolk width and yolk index values.
The respective average egg weight, shell thickness and shape index values were 39.6 g, 0.296 mm
and 73.2%. The average values of yolk height, yolk width and Haugh unit were 16.1 mm, 36.8 mm
and 73.2, respectively. In conclusion, the midland agro-ecological system appears to favor the
survivability and expression of external and internal egg quality traits of scavenging rural
chickens.
