The mean fertility for all eggs (N=1826) determined at the
14th day incubation was 72.40% (Table 1), with the
highest (86.67%) recorded by Marshall, while Ross had
the least of 52.77%. This obvious difference across the
strains may be attributed to different breeding practices
employed by the farms. The very low fertility of Ross
may be due to the fact that eggs were collected only
three days after the birds were artificially inseminated,
which is rather earlier than prescribed waiting period.
The Ross hens had been withdrawn from breeding
programmes for some time and were only introduced to
breeding for the purpose of this study. Fertility was
greatly influenced (P