Turkey hen fertility and egg production after artificial insemination and multiple oviduct eversion during the pre-laying period.

The onset of egg production (mean 18.3 days after the onset of photostimulation) and the rate of egg production (flock averaged 4.9 eggs per bird per week for the first 8 weeks of egg production) were not affected by 5 days of twice daily oviduct eversion ('venting') in the pre-laying period when compared to unvented controls. After the onset of photostimulation, pre-laying hens were inseminated twice daily on Days 12 to 16 with 3 microliter semen containing 15 x 10(6) spermatozoa, and compared with groups of hens inseminated once daily on Days 15 and 16 with 15 microliters semen containing 75 x 10(6) spermatozoa or 41 microliter semen containing 200 x 10(6) spermatozoa. Fertility remained high for the first 5 weeks of egg production. However, by Week 6 the fertility of the hens receiving frequent low doses of semen dropped significantly below that of the others, which suggests that multiple inseminations with a low semen volume containing relatively low numbers of spermatozoa does not lead to an increase in the efficacy of sperm transport and storage in the oviduct.