Fertility and hatchability of wild indigenous guinea fowl (Numida meleagris galeata ) eggs at three different periods using kerosene type incubator

Abstract

The study was conducted to examine the fertility and hatchability of Wild indigenous guinea fowl eggs at three different periods (April-June, 2009) using kerosene type incubator, which lasted for 12 weeks. A total of 710 eggs were collected and incubated in batches. The parameters observed include number of egg set .number of eggs fertile ,number of eggs hatched, number of dead embryos ,and percentage hatchability of fertile eggs , percentage hatchability of all eggs set , .analysis of the result showed a significant difference (p<0.05) between the period of incubation .It was observed that the percentage hatchability of fertile eggs in the month of May, gave higher results with average temperature of 28.85C and average rainfall of 6.8mm than April with temperature of29SfC and rainfall of 3.0mm and June with average temperature of 28.4°C with average rainfall of 3.6mm respectively. Percentage hatchability in May was 93.93% followed by April with 59.63%, while June 19.05% respectively. From the result of this study, it could inferred that fertility and hatchability of wild indigenous Guinea fowl eggs at three different periods using kerosene type incubator in this zone is more effective when eggs are collected in May, and under similar weather conditions.