Comparative fertility and hatchability of quail eggs based on storage days and egg measurements

Fertility and hatchability of quail eggs as influenced by different pre-incubation storage days and some egg measurements were evaluated. The eggs were sourced from the quail breeding unit on the Lagos State University Livestock Farm where the hens are naturally mated by the male in cages, at the ratio of 1:4, male to female ratio. Eggs were collected over a 14-day period on a daily basis from the cages and stored at room temperature. The eggs were labelled and assigned unique ID indicating the cage, day of lay and serial number within the cage. Measurements of the eggs weight, length, width, horizontal circumference, vertical circumference, egg volume by water displacement was determined, the storage days was determined by constructing five ordinal groups of three days each. A total of 535 eggs were set in incubator, candled at the 14th day of incubation and evaluated for fertility. Fertile eggs were identified and set in the hatcher for the last three days of incubation. The number of fertile eggs and hatched chicks were recorded. Counts of fertile eggs and hatched chicks were made for estimation of fertility and hatchability of the eggs. Fertility was highest (85.80%) in the A group (0 – 2 days) which consistently declined to 25.53% in the E group (12 – 14 days). Hatchability followed the same trend with the A group recording the highest value (81.38%) of the fertilized eggs, while the D group (9 – 11 days) had the least hatchability of 21.05%. The Chi-squared test of independence of storage days on fertility and hatchability were both highly significant (P<0.001). The binary logistic regression revealed that egg volume and storage days were the only significant (P<0.05) sources of deviation on fertility of eggs, while egg width and storage days were both highly significant (P<0.01) on hatchability of quail eggs. The study revealed that quail eggs are best stored for not more than one week for higher fertility and hatchability.