Cold weather

Cold weather is apparently without effect on female

reproduction in swine. When both gilts and boars
experienced extremely cold weather, there was no
decline in conception rate.

The female bird

Chicken breeder flocks have a fertility (fertile eggs

+ total eggs) and hatchability (hatched eggs + fertile
eggs) slump in late summer anti early fall. Typical results
are given in Table 9.7. It is thought that reduced mating
activity during hot weather might be responsible for much
of this effect.
Results of an experiment in which heat -stressed
hens were artificially inseminated with semen from cocks
held at thermoneutrality indicated that fertility of the hen
per se was not impaired by the stress. Neither did
hyperthermy in the hen affect fertility or hatchability of the
eggs. On the other hand, some results implicate the hen's
reproductive function as the major factor in the
reproductive slump characteristic of summer in chic kens.
Reduction in the hen's voluntary feed intake below the
level needed to support reproductive functions might be
responsible for the effects that sometimes occur.