Egg Production Pattern Of Japanese Quail (Coturnix Coturnix Japonica) In Northern Guinea Savannah Zone Of Nigeria

The technology drive from egg production in relationship with genetic selection makes today’s egg production quails quite different from those of a decade ago. For instance age at 5 percent production is now earlier and total egg number has increased. The quail eggs are renowned for their high biological value (George, 2002). Although it was first considered mainly as a model animal for commercial poultry (Wilson et al., 1961), the modern Japanese quail is a good egg layer in its own right (Baumgartner, 1994), and it is farmed intensively for egg production, especially in Japan and South East Asia (Minvielle, 1998). The female Japanese quail may start laying eggs as early as 35 days (Varghense, 2002) of age under proper conditions. Piano et al. (2004) stated that under high intensive care, female Japanese quails start laying at an age of 42 days and reach peak production by 10 – 12 weeks of age. Randall, Abstract: A study was carried out with 48 Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) at the poultry unit Department of Animal Science, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The birds were individually caged and intensively reared for a period of 165 days to study the egg production pattern of the birds in terms of egg number, number of clutches, clutch size, number of pause, days pause and paused length; and also the association of each with egg number. It was observed that the 165 days egg production pattern characteristic of the birds were egg number 103 + 15, number of clutches 38 + 6, clutch size 3 + 1, number of pause 38 + 4, days pause 54 + 14 and pause length 2 + 1. The level of variation for the measured characteristic over the period was in the range of CV values of 15 to 33% with the highest level of variability exhibited by clutch size. There was a significant (P = 0.05) positive relationship between egg number and clutch size (r = 0.85) but negatively related with number of clutches, number of pauses, days paused and pause length (r = -0.46 to -0.72). While number of clutches was negatively correlated with clutch size (P = 0.01; r = 0.84) it was positively correlated with the number of pauses and days paused (r = 0.82 and 0.51). The clutch size was positively correlated with number of pauses (r = 0.75) and negatively with days paused and pause length r = 0.75 and -0.27). The number of pauses was positively correlated with days paused and paused (r = 0.35). This study has shown that Japanese quails commence egg production at 71%, attained a peak production of 86% which gradually decline to 57% by 165 days of age. Egg number was favoured by clutch size but negated by number of clutches, number of pauses, days paused and pause length. The age at peak production was 12 weeks (84 days) of age.