2021-04-132021-04-132017-08-11Sözcü, A. ve Ipek, A. (2017). "Effects of egg weight on chick and organ development, growth and slaughter traits in pekin ducks". Journal of Biological and Environmental Sciences, 11(32), 87-92.1307-95301308-2019http://jbes.uludag.edu.tr/PDFDOSYALAR/32/mak04.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11452/19613This study was carried out to determine the effects of increased egg weight of pekin ducks on organ development, chick quality, growth traits, slaughter and carcass yield. A total of 405 one day old Pekin ducklings that have been hatched from light, medium and heavy hatching eggs, were used in the experiment. Egg weight were classified as “light” (<75 g), “medium” (76-82 g) and “heavy” (>83 g) by weighing with ±0.1 precision one by one. The chick hatching weight and leg length were found to be the highest in chicks hatched from heavy eggs, with values of 47.4 g and 227.8 mm compared to the chicks hatched from light and medium eggs (P<0.05). At 42 d of age, the body weight of ducks hatched from heavy eggs was 3195.0 g, compared to the ducks hatched from light and medium eggs (2879.6 and 2897.9 g, P=0.001). Any significant differences observed for feed conversion rate and mortality among the experimental groups (P>0.05). Slaughter weight, carcass weight were also the highest for ducks hatched from heavy eggs (P=0.004). In conclusion, increased egg weight affected chick hatching weight and growing performance in Pekin ducks.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessPekin duckSlaughter characteristicsEgg weightChick hatching weightGrowth traitsArticle87921132