Fertility of the turkey hen as affected by initial insemination and onset of egg production.

A comparison between initial inseminations of Large White turkey hens prior to or after onset of egg production was undertaken to determine the effect on fertility. Semen from Bronze toms was utilized for the initial inseminations whereas all subsequent inseminations utilized White sires. After 10 weeks there were no significant differences between treatments for percent egg production or hatchability. Inseminating prior to the onset of egg production resulted in a significantly different (P less than or equal to .05) 8-week average of 97.5% fertility in the early insemination (EI) group as compared to an average of 90.4% in the late insemination (LI) group. Differences between the EI and the LI groups were greatest during the last 2 weeks of the experiment during which the EI hens maintained higher levels of fertility. Bronze poults were observed in the EI progeny following three subsequent inseminations with semen from White sires, whereas no Bronze poults were obtained from the LI hens following the third subsequent insemination with White semen.