They laid fewer eggs inside nest boxes during the first 2 weeks of lay, laid more eggs on litter throughout the observed period, and had a lower onset of laying than AH and AC hens.
Clutch size was independent of variation in pre-breeding PRL or LH, although pre-breeding LH was negatively correlated with the time between pairing and the onset of laying.
We found that only incubation duration on the first night after the onset of laying correlated with the likelihood of hatchlings being sired by an extra-pair male.
Herein, we measured EWs at nine time points from onset of laying to 60 week of age, and conducted comprehensive genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in 1,534 F2 hens derived from reciprocal crosses between White Leghorn and Dongxiang chickens.
The dynamic eggshell quality traits at 11 time points from onset of laying to 72 weeks were collected and used for genome-wide association analysis with a 600 K high-density SNP array.
In the current study, we conducted GWA analysis on the dynamic eggshell quality traits at 11 time points from onset of laying to 72 weeks old utilizing a 600 K high-density SNP arrays in an F2 chicken population.
Means and standard deviations for eggshell quality traits, including ESW, EST and ESS, at 11 time points from onset of laying to 72 weeks of age are presented in Table 1 and Additional file 1: Figure S1.
Standard errors of the estimates are in parentheses a FESW eggshell weight of first egg, ESW32, ESW36, ESW40, ESW44, ESW48, ESW52, ESW56, ESW60, ESW66, ESW72 eggshell weights of 32,36,40,44,48,52,56,60,66,72 weeks of age Eggshell quality traits were collected at 11 time points from onset of laying to 72 weeks.
Yet, our previous experiment, where we added model eggs prior to the onset of laying, did affect paternity with a decrease in EPP, and increased hatching asynchrony (Vedder et al. 2010), suggesting that there is an underlying causal link between incubation and paternity.
Here, we measured eggshell quality traits, including eggshell weight (ESW), eggshell thickness (EST) and eggshell strength (ESS) at 11 time points from onset of laying to 72 weeks of age and conducted comprehensive genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in 1534 F2 hens derived from reciprocal crosses between White Leghorn (WL) and Dongxiang chickens (DX).
