Effects of Varying Day Length on Egg Production Traits and Patterns of Ovipositing in Japanese Quail

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Abstract
Genetic variation and ovipositing pattern of Japanese quail were studied in 3 different day lengths of 24, 22 and 20 h. To describe the ovipositing pattern, statistical methods for circular distributions were applied. Means of rate-of-lay traits decreased parallel with shortening day length, while their variability increased simultaneously. Heritabilities did not differ significantly from zero. The response of ovipositing patterns to shortening day lengths indicated that a modest shortening of the light-dark cycle could alter the environment to exploit hitherto concealed genetic variation.