Peanuts

[jamieneenah]

HI,

Anyone give there hens any peanuts? I read that adding a small amount of peanuts to the diet can increase egg size.

Jamie

 

[KellyHM]

Not true - the hens' bodies determine egg size. I'm sure they'd like them for a yummy treat though.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

here is some information from a friend of mine Dr Ron Okimoto

EGG SIZE INHERITANCE
Glenda L Heywood

In Egg production as well as the use of good layers in females for pure bred show quality birds one always hopes the females you use have the distinct ability to lay a good hatchable egg.

I have often wondered where the egg size comes from the Male or Female lines?

Were the eggs that the hens from the male line of good size when they were producing eggs for hatching?

When I asked a reader of the National Poultry news Dr Ron Okimoto from the Arkansas State University staff he replied this way:

From: Ron Okimoto

Egg production traits are relatively low heritability traits. This just means that it is more difficult to
select for them and make genetic progress. You also can't select the males directly for the traits, but
you have to select males based on the performance of their mothers and their daughters.

If you want to experiment I'd create a third line. Keep the other two lines going, but make reciprocal
crosses between the two lines and raise the hybrids together as a separate line. Use the best females from the two lines to generate the hybrids.

Egg production traits may have a maternal effects. Usually we expect the hybrids to have production
traits like egg size mid way between the two parental types, but if there are maternal effects the hybrids
may look more like one type of female than the other. This just means that if the chick hatches from an egg laid by a hen that lays smaller eggs, sometimes the hybrids tend to lay an egg smaller than the midpoint value that is expected. Sometimes you get lucky and get heterosis and the egg size is larger than you expected.

It will take you several generations of breeding the new line before you can start seeing if it was worth
doing the cross or not.

Remember that initial heterosis (hybrid vigor) is only temporary and that breeding the hybrids together will segregate out the hybrid vigor in those offspring. The genetics of the two lines should be scrambled and you should be able to select the bird that you want, but it is not easy and will take a long time.

Thanks To Dr Okimoto for this informative information as to egg size