Behavioural responses of cockerels to semen collection and their influenceon semen characteristics

1. One-hundred-and-twenty cockerels of Strain L2 Taiwan Country chicken fro m the National Chung-Hsing University were tested for their behavioural res ponses to semen collection at 21 to 30, 34 to 43 and 57 to 66 weeks of age. At every age period, semen was collected from every cockerel 4 dimes withi n a 1-week period. 2. Cockerel performances on most semen traits, including volume, concentrat ion, total number of sperm, ease of collection and sensitivity to massage w ere very consistent within each age period. 3. Males that did not respond nervously to handling or were less sensitive to massage appeared to produce less semen. However, contamination was more serious in males that responded very nervously or were very sensitive to ma ssage. 4. Sensitivity to massage, like semen volume, is an invariant character as indicated by the high correlation between measures taken at different age p eriods.