Abstract
The study was conducted in two selected districts of Kembata Tembaro Zone, Southern Ethiopia with objectives of to assess the production system, and egg quality of village chicken reared under traditional management system. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select representative samples and one hundred eight six respondents (186) were interviewed with structured questionnaire. The data were organized and analyzed by using SPSS and SAS. The mean of Eggs per clutch per hen, Age at first lay, and number of clutches per hen/year were 15.82±0.54, 7.08±0.25, 5.26±0.25 and Age of sexual Maturity (Male=7.67±0.306 and female=8.13±0.301), respectively. The predominant breed is exotic (59.6%) with a village chicken production system. 50.55% of the respondents kept chicken in Perch at one corner of the common house, and 45.70% practiced isolation of sick birds from health to prevent disease transmission. The mean of eggs incubated, hatched, and hatchability percentages were (14.5±0.55, 12.5±0.57 and 80.5), respectively. The study revealed that 40.32, 26.2 and 17.32% of respondents rear chicken for sale, home consumption, and non-defined purpose, respectively. The highest percentage of the interviewed respondent's use of eggs was for selling purposes 30.1% (Mid and 31.7% (Highland). Regarding egg storage conditions in high land and mid land agroecology about 21.5% and 18.3% of the respondents store their eggs inside cold containers, respectively. The major constraints of chicken production in the study areas were the prevalence of disease, high chick mortality, predator attack (Shululla), shortage of feed and grains, and lack of parent stock, respectively. The most economically important disease that attacks chicken Newcastle disease which is locally known as "Kenbesha" in the study areas. All egg quality parameters were statistically similar among the agroecology except significant difference in egg yolk height and albumen height. Shell thickness was comparable to the acceptable eggshell thickness to withstand egg breakage. The yolk index values of the eggs obtained from both agro ranged from 0.54-0.56. The HU value that figures out the quality of albumen was within the range of 70-100 set for good egg quality. Therefore, efforts should be geared to alleviate constraints like prevalence of disease, High chick mortality, predator attack, shortage of feed, and lack of parent stock hampering chicken production, training of smallholder farmers on chicken housing practices, and further research was needed on external and internal egg quality determination under different production system.