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The aim of this study was to determine the productivity of Croatian breed of hens Hrvatica under free-range raising. Hens aged 20 weeks were housed in 11 family farms, where in each were two flocks of 10 hens. Monitoring of production results were 32 weeks. All hens were fed with complete feed mixtures (15% protein and 11.28 MJ/ME), and they had access to the grass discharge (10m2/hen). Data on the number and weight of eggs and feed consumption were collected. The strength of the shell, yolk colour and Hough’s unit values of 10 eggs of each flock in the 10th week of investigation were determined. Cost benefits analysis was done to calculate the economic indicators of production. The average number of eggs per hen was 130.98 eggs, feed conversion 3.46 kg/kg of egg mass and average egg weight was 51.4 grams. The strength of the shell was 3.10 kp/cm2, yolk colour at La Roche scale was 11 and a value of Haugh’s unit was 66.02. Total revenues included amounts received by selling eggs and government incentives amounted to $ 9.403, 75 or 42.74 $/hen, while the variable costs were $ 3.936, 12 or 17.89 $/hen. Contribution of cover for the all 11 family farms was 5.467, 63 $ or 24.85 $/hen. According to the above, we conclude that the hen Hrvatica can be fully recommended for free-range raising on small family farms in Croatia while there are government incentives. |
