Broiler yields using chicks from egg weight extremes and diverse strains

Hatching eggs were obtained from four commercial breeder flocks of differen t strains. Eggs were categorized as "heavy" and "light," to represent the t op and bottom thirds by weight from each flock. Chicks from heavy eggs had better overall live performance through 49 days than those from light eggs. Differences in live performance among the strains exceeded that between he avy and light eggs, yet responses by each strain to egg weight were similar . Relative incidence of carcas defects that would influence grade and bone- out yields varied among the strains, but alterations due to extremes in hat ching egg weight were negligible.