The Effect of age, body weight and egg weight on hatchability in parent bronz turkey

44 7. SUMMARY The study was carried out to investigate The effects of parent age, live weight and egg weight on hatching results. This study population was consisted of 720 female and 120 male Bronz turkeys and their 5526 eggs kept in Bingöl Agriculture Unit. Parents were divided into three groups according to their live weight; as light, medium and heavy. The eggs obtained from these groups were also incubated in three different groups ; ^ 75.4 g, 75.5-85.4 g and s 85.5 g. The age of parents was examined by repeating the treatment when they were at the ages of 38, 44 and 50 weeks. The research results showed that parent age effected hatchability of total eggs significantly (P<0.01). Fertility, hatchability the of fertile eggs and of the total eggs in 38 week old parents were determined to be higher than those of 44 and 50 week old parents. Live weight was observed to have an effect on hatching results. The effect of parent weight on hatching results at the 44th week was found to be statistically significant (P<0.01). There was also a difference between the live weight groups at 38 and 50 week olds, but it was not statistically significant. Egg weight was also found to effect hatching results and the best results were obtained with the eggs weighed 75.5-85.4 g. It was seen that very big and very small eggs were not suitable for hatching. It was observed that the increase in parent age was related with an increase in egg weight but a decrease in hatching performance. There was a positive correlation between live weight and egg weight, but a negative correlation between live weight and hatching performance.