by Hope G. Patricio and Jaime C. Cabarles, Jr. (completed January 2007)
ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to determine the breeding performance of Darag native chicken breeders raised under full and semi-confined conditions. Darag native chicken are characterized by a yellowish plumage with greenish gray streaks for female and the “labuyo” red for male. The treatments were laid out in a completely randomized design with unequal number of replications. The eggs per clutch, hatching percentage, and feed consumption were analyzed using the t-test while the other data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results showed that there were no significant differences (P>0.05) on the mean number of eggs per clutch and hatching percentage of chickens in full and semi-confined conditions. Birds from the full-confinement treatment had significantly (P<0.01) higher feed consumption and also had the higher feed cost. All other cost remains constant except for total feed consumed for both. Day-old-chicks coming from semi-confined birds had a production cost of P22.48 compared to P35.29 of those from full confined breeders. If the prevailing market price of day-old native chick is P40.00, the chick from the full-confinement will have a return of P4.71 while P17.52 for semi-confinement.
