STUDY ON THE MORPHOMETRIC, GROWTH AND EGG PRODUCTION CHARACTERISTICS OF RED JUNGLE FOWL AND NON-DESCRIPTIVE DESHI CHICKEN UNDER SEMI-INTENSIVE CONDITION

Abstract

The study was conducted in Hathazari Upazilla of Chattogram District of Bangladesh to know the morphometric, growth, and egg production characteristics of Red Jungle fowl and non-descriptive deshi chicken under semi-intensive condition. A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from December, 2018 to November, 2019. This study reveals that the non-descriptive deshi chickens were morphometrically larger than the Red Jungle fowl, where all the traits were shown comparatively superior. Male birds have higher values comparatively to the females in both genotypes. The weight of day old chicks up to the weight at sexual maturity the Red Jungle fowl showed poorer results than the non-descriptive deshi chicken except the age of sexual maturity, which indicates non-descriptive deshi chicken attain late sexual maturity. The fertility (88.76%), hatchability (76.54%), clutch size (10.56), hen-day egg production per year (52.8) and egg weight (40.70g) was significantly higher in non-descriptive deshi than the Red Jungle fowl. Overall, although non descriptive deshi was comparatively superior producer than the Red Jungle fowl. A further study is strongly recommended with larger sample size.