Alemayehu Sufe and Misba Alewi
This study conducted and demonstrated to evaluate the egg production performance of koekeok chicken at Shashemene and Kuyera districts of West Arsi zone, Oromiya region thereby to enhance the production and productivity of the small-scale poultry production system. In this study, five households were participated and each received 50 day-old Potchefstroom Koekoek chicks to grow and take egg production performance records by feeding starter, grower and layer feed ad lib. The complete feeds were prepared by Debre Zeit agricultural center. When the birds reached at maturity, the Age at First Egg (AFE) and body weight at sexual maturity were recorded. Egg production recorded on daily basis starting from age at first egg until 74 weeks of age in terms of egg number and Hen-Housed Egg Production (HHEP). Results of this study revealed that the age at first egg was 161 days and average number of eggs laid per hen per year was 221 eggs. The rate of lay based on HHEP for a period of one year (i.e. 52 weeks of production) was 60.6% and the overall mortality during the 74 weeks period was 4.81%. In conclusion, the overall performance and adaptation potential of this breed was good in this study and is highly accepted by the participated households. Therefore, it is recommended that efforts need to make the accessibility of the breed in the studied area through scaling up and also linking the veterinary services and poultry feed technologies, call attention.
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