Abstract

The total number of 80 eggs, 40 from local Ethiopian chickens and 40 from South African breeds poultry farm were used to determine and compare the quality of eggs of indigenous chickens purchased from market with fresh eggs of South African breeds. The important external egg quality traits evaluated in this study were egg weight, egg length, egg width, shell thickness shell weight and shape index. The internal egg traits evaluated for quality in this study include yolk color, yolk width, yolk height, albumen height, yolk weight, yolk index and Hough unit. Egg weight and egg length, were significantly higher in South African breeds as compared to the indigenous ones. However, the indigenous breeds outperform the South African breeds in Yolk color, and Yolk index. Generally, the eggs of both South African breeds and indigenous chickens are not too poor in quality. But some improvements are required for local hens to make the quality best.

Keywords: Weight; Length; Width; Shell thickness; Shell weight; Shape index