Productivity and morphological indicators of egg quality of meat hens of maternal lines of the Cornish and Plymouth Rock breeds of the new Smena-9 cross

The article is devoted to the assessment of productivity and morphological indicators of egg quality of maternal lines of Cornish and Plymouth Rock breeds of the new Russian Smena-9 cross. It was found that during the breeding of meat hens of the maternal lines of Cornish and Plymouth Rock breeds (from 2019 to 2021), the egg production increased by 1.6-2.2% (Cornish) and by 2.2-4.3% (Plymouth Rock) during the 30 and 52 weeks of life. There was a 0.1-1.9% decrease in eggs with such defects as double-yolk, irregular shape, breakage + check, weight less than 52 g. The best morphological parameters had eggs obtained from the maternal lines of Cornish and Plymouth Rock hens at 30 weeks of age. The hatchability of eggs obtained from the maternal line of the Cornish breed hens at that age was 83.9%, and for the Plymouth Rock breed it was 86.1%. Productivity and morphological indicators of the quality of eggs of the maternal lines of Cornish and Plymouth Rock breeds of Smena-9 cross are high, the chickens are competitive.