Survey of line crosses in a Brown Leghorn flock 1. Egg Production

Abstract

Six isolate lines of long standing, from the Centre's Brown Leghorn flock, were intermated in all possible directions, providing thirty cross and six pure line samples. Half the birds from each line and reciprocal cross were kept in floor pens and the rest caged in an adjacent battery house.Sexual maturity, survivors' production to 500 days of age, and November through June egg numbers, all showed two main factors contributing to variations in cross performance: (1) a significant association with parental production levels as measured by mid-parent averages, and (2) an additional hybrid gain. For November to June production in pens, this hybrid gain appeared to approach a constant for the cross groups. Additional sources of variation were present in age at sexual maturity.The 500-day records for the penned hybrids exceeded the line average by 50 eggs. Caged samples did less well and showed an advantage of only 34 eggs. In this location the hybrid gain for individual groups decreased with increases in mid-parent level.Egg weight varied negatively with egg numbers only in the upper half of the wide egg-size range. The best layers fell at the lower end of the covariant range for egg size.The importance of improving closed strains may not have been lessened by the expansion of the hybrid side of the poultry industry, for the pattern of relationships of line and cross production in this flock is consistent enough to justify the inference that the best hybrids come from the best-producing parents.