Heterosis and phenotypic correlations for shank length, body weight and egg production traits in the Alexandria strains and their crosses with Fayoumi chickens.

The performance features of one paternal (PL) and one maternal line (ML) each, their reciprocal crosses and their crosses with a non-selected Fayoumi population are presented. A clear heterosis was found for hatchability only. Shank length, body weight, fertility, sexual maturity and egg weight were intermediate. Heterosis was observed for the number of eggs in the first 90 days of laying for the ML X PL cross. The performance of the PL and ML and of their reciprocal crosses was generally higher than that of the crosses with the non-selected Fayoumis.