Social life offers animals increased fitness opportunities. However, the advantages are not evenly distributed and some individuals benefit more than others. The ultimate advantage of reaching the highest rank in a dominance hierarchy is the achievement of reproduction monopoly. In social insects, dominant individuals and queens keep their reproductive control through differential oophagy of un...

this experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of portulaca oleracea (po),medicinal plant, on performance, egg traits, blood biochemical and immunity parameters of laying hens. one hundred eighty hi-line (w-36 strain) mature laying hens 65 up to 76 weeks of age were allotted in a completely randomized design consisting of 5 treatments and 3 replicates (12 birds per re...

Social insect societies are outstanding examples of cooperation and conflict. Individuals work together, yet seek to increase their inclusive fitness at each others' expense. One such conflict is over colony inheritance, when a queen inherits the colony following the death of the previous queen. Colony inheritance is common in the social wasp Polistes dominulus, and it can have dramatic fitness...

Rice bran (RB) is a major by-product, produced from the rice milling process. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance, egg quality, and blood biochemical parameters of 288 Hy-line laying hens fed diets with rice bran and commercial microbial phytase Natuphos®5000. The experiment was a 4×2 factorial one with four RB levels (0, 5, 10, and 15%) by two phytase levels (0 and 5000 FTU/kg...

the present research was designed to examine the genetic analysis of egg weight, egg yolk weight and egg albumen weight of bovan neva black laying hens at 25, 51 and 72 weeks. for this purpose, thirty birds were selected from the layer flock in the babcock university teaching and research farm. they were individually housed in separate labeled battery cage. a total of thirty eggs were collected...

Mating has profound effects on the physiology and behavior of female insects, and in honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens, these changes are permanent. Queens mate with multiple males during a brief period in their early adult lives, and shortly thereafter they initiate egg-laying. Furthermore, the pheromone profiles of mated queens differ from those of virgins, and these pheromones regulate many ...

this experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of using of zizaphora (thymyus valgaris), peppermint (lamiaceae menthapiperita), menta pulagum (oreganum valgare) medicinal plants on performance, egg quality, blood and immunity parameters of laying hens. this experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with 288 of hy line (w-36) laying hens in 8 treatments and 3 replicates (...

the experiment was designed to study the changes in production performance and egg quality of old laying hens after injection of different doses of growth hormone (gh) and testosterone (ts). a total of 160 old laying hens (hyline w-36) at 73 wks of age were randomly assigned to four treatments with four replicates and 10 birds in each replicate in a completely randomized design. treatment group...

Reproduction is influenced by many external factors. For egg laying of pond snails, one important trigger is the transfer from dirty, oxygen-poor water to clean, oxygen-rich water. This response is due to the combined effects of elevated oxygen level, chemical water composition and clean substrate. Whether this clean-water stimulus (CWS) resembles the natural egg-laying process has remained unt...