How the diurnal hours affects maintenance behavior in Japanese quail concerning rearing modification systems

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the impact of times of day on the behavior of Japanese quail concerning managerial modifications systems. A total of 120 one-day-old quail chicks were used in this study. 60 chicks were housed in cage systems; distributed into 3 subgroups (20 birds on each), a normal cage group, a cage with cover as wire floor with plastic cover from the top and third cage group "Edinburg modification cage", as a normal cage except that the front portion has dust bather filled with washed builder sand or fine sawdust. The other floor managerial modifications included 60 birds distributed into three subgroups. The first-floor group was considered "normal", as 20 birds were housed using an 80×50 floor system with 5cm or l0cm dry, clean soft sawdust sprinkling with slaked lime, the second-floor group was named "A grill group". The feed was offered to the quail in a plastic feeder covered with the grill to reduce feed wastage and the third-floor group offered feed to the quail in a longitudinal constructed feeder with six holes separated by wire. Data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA, where two factors affect the behavior of quails and from our study, we suggested that there were non-significant differences in the ingestive behavior of quail regarding the daylight effect. Most standing frequencies were conducted midday at most managerial modifications. Crouching time also increased in the early morning with the normal floor group and constructed feeder. We conclude that various times of the day and managerial modifications greatly alter maintenance behavior in most quail chicks. Abnormal behavior was comparatively higher in the morning.