Production performance of Rhode Island Red bird reared in backyard at various agro-climatic zones of West Bengal

The Rhode Island Red (RIR) is assumed to be one of the best adopted breed for backyard rearing in West Bengal considering its duel (meat and egg production) performance. Its various productive performances though had been standardized in general, but performance of backyard rearing RIR in various agro-climatic zones of West Bengal is yet to be standardized. Hence, an attempt was made to explore the age of puberty, weekly production, annual total production, peak production period, flock size, mortality rate of total 70000 RIR birds reared in backyard and equally distributed at five zones of West Bengal viz. tarai, old alluvial, new alluvial, coastal and red laterite zones. The result of mean weekly production, mean laying period and total egg production in overall study area were 3.24±0.50, 46.38±6.88 weeks and 168.48 eggs per bird annually respectively. The age of puberty and peak production was found as 23.56 ± 2.69 weeks (165 days) and 36 weeks (252 days) respectively in overall study. The overall flock size and mortality rate was 10.66±0.11 and 12.31±0.61%, respectively. All the features of RIR were similar to the earlier findings and to some extent well comparable to the performance of RIR reared at farm. Thus, RIR can be promoted for better livelihood, food security and augmentation of egg production in the state of West Bengal.