ABSTRACT

 An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of the different egg size from which birds are hatched have on their performances in terms of their growth traits and also to examine the effect of feeding regimen on the performance of broilers. The different egg size used were in categories A (50g - 57g), B (58g - 62g), C (63g- 68g) with corresponding day - old weights of 37.593g, 38.364g and 41.774g on hatching respectively. The feeding regimens were ad libitum feeding and controlled (restricted) feeding. 96 out of a total of 110 Anak titan breed broilers hatched from 350 fertile eggs set were used with a factorial experimentation in CRD design. The growth traits measured were feed intake, body weight, thigh length, shank length, breast length and body girth on forthnightly basis, efficiency of production was also evaluated using weight gain, feed conversion ratio, feed intake and mortality. Results showed that the egg size affected the growth traits positively (P > 0.05) in that birds in group C with higher initial weight out performed that of B and A in terms of final body weight and most of the other growth parameters studied. The mean recorded body weight at ~ week for birds in A, B, and C groups were 1386.50g, 1426.50g and 1521.00g respectively, but there were no significant difference (P > 0.05) between these three groups. The feeding regimen employed significantly (P <0.05) affected the performance of the broilers of combined egg size with the ad libitum feeding group being significantly (P < 0.05) higher in mean values than birds on the restricted feeding · group. There was no much significant difference (P > 0.05) for the Interaction between birds of different egg size and feeding regimen, but numerically birds in each group placed on ad libl(um feeding had higher mean values than the restricted group. There was a high, significant (p <0.05) correlation between body weight and all the other growth trits throughout the study period. It ;- recommended that birds in group C with hlgh initial weight and, subsequent hi} performance under ad libitum feeding should be adopted with occasional restricted feeding to prevent wastage.