Performance Of Bashang Long-Tail Chicken With Different Feather Colors And Egg Quality In Cage And Free-Range Conditions

The Bashang long-tail chicken of Hebei Province is the earliest included in Annals poultry of chickens.The growth and production performance with different feather color groups as well as the egg quality in cage and free-range conditions were studied in this paper.The main results were as follows:1.Feather color had significant effects on growth and development and production performance in fast-feathering chicken population(p<0.05),and had no significant effects in slow-feathering chicken population(p>0.05).2.The egg weight increased with the age increasing.The average egg weight of chicken with hemp and black feather color was higher than that of chicken with white and reed flower color.The cumulative number of egg for fast feathering strain with the feather color of hemp,black,white and reed flower was 150,154,170,and 119 respectively,which was with the maximum of 285,240,273,240 and minimum of 31,55,81,51 respectively.The cumulative number of egg for slow feathering strain with the feather color of hemp,black,white and reed flower was 140,117,149,and 147 respectively,which was with the maximum of 289,302,235,256 and minimum of 22,12,22,and 49 respectively.3.The growth rate of feather had significant effect on growth and development of Bashang Long-Tail Chicken(p<0.05).The body weight and body size of slow feathering strain were higher than that of fast feathering strain.There was significant effect of feather growth rate on production performances in hemp,black and reed flower feather populations(p<0.05),but no significant effect on white feather population.4.The egg yolk,crude fat calcium,fatty acid,Vitamin B1,chromium,manganese and zinc of Bashang Long-Tail Chicken were higher than that of Hy-Line brown eggs under the same free-range and cage feeding conditions,but the egg weight,albumen height,protein ratio and edible portion of total water were significantly lower.5.The fat,unsaturated fatty acids,total monounsaturated fatty acids,total fattyacids,oleic acid,riboflavin,myristic acid,palmitic acid,palmitoleic acid,fatty acid and pearl elemental iron,and zinc of eggs under free-range were significantly higher than that of caged eggs,but the crude protein,albumen height,water,thiamine and elemental selenium content were significantly lower.