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BACKGROUND: The experiment was carried out with total of 270 eggs, which were collected from a brown-egg layer strain of Lohmann hens reared in a cage system. Collected eggs were categorized according to weight and classified as medium, large, extra-large or jumbo. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of egg weight on egg quality characteristics.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of hatching egg weight of broiler parent stocks on hatching results, chick performance, carcass characteristics, internal organ weights and some blood stress parameters. Eggs were divided into 3 egg weight groups (55.0 to 60.0 g (light), 60.1 to 65.0 g (medium) and 65.1 to 70.0 g (heavy)) for the experiments. After incubation, mixed-gender broiler chicks from the hatcher were placed into 27 grower pens (2x1 m) with 9 replications for 3 weight groups by using randomized block design. Each pen had 25 broiler chicks. Therefore, 225 chicks were used for each group and 675 chicks in total. The experiment was designed with nine replicates. Chi-square test, variance analysis test and Duncan multiple range test were used during statistical analysis. Hatching egg weight significantly affected egg shell thickness (p=0.042), egg weight loss on 18 th day of incubation (p<0.001), number of healthy chick (p=0.001) and deformed chicks (p=0.003), hatchability (p=0.003), hatchability yield (p=0.002), hatching weight and 7 day chick body weight (p=0.001), fresh carcass yields (p=0.002), and cooled carcass yields (p<0.001), blood triglyceride level (p=0.031), back toe relative asymmetry (p=0.032) and back toe fluctuating asymmetry (p=0.038). It was concluded in the present study that medium-weight eggs yielded better hatching results and the chicks of medium-weight eggs also yielded better outcomes with regards to other investigated parameters.