European Journal of Scientific Research - EuroJournals

Effects of Enviromental Variables on Poultry Performance and Pond Water Quality in an
Integrated Poultry/Fishery Farming 812
Figure 9: Relationship between the chloride levels in the various ponds and Weeks After Stocking
Development of the Birds
The birds recorded an increasing weight gain throughout the period of the study. The average weight
during stocking to the end of the study varied from 0.7kg to about 9kg. There was no significant
difference at 5% level in the average weight of the birds in the various cages as shown in the ANOVA
table shown in table 7.1 and Fig.10 and this implied that the development of birds in the cages was
equal throughout the period of the study.
Figure 10: Relationship between the average weight of birds in different cages and weeks after Stocking
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cage1
cage2
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0 2 4 6 8 12 14 16 18 2 0 2 2 2 4
Weeks after stocking
Zero mortality was recorded throughout the period of study and this confirmed that the
environmental conditions of the housing unit were suitable for poultry production. A log-log plot of the
weight of birds and time is shown in Fig. 11. This graph is a straight line which relates the growth of
weight of birds as a power of time and similar to the observations of Kettlewell, P. J. and Moran, P.
(1992) and Aerts et-al (2000).