Abstract
Means and standard errors of 285 Taiwan's local chicken and 429 Single Comb White Leghorn pullets at 35 wk of age were: egg weight (g) $48.3{\pm}0.3$, $54.6{\pm}0.3$, shell index $73.39{\pm}0.26$, $73.20{\pm}0.18$, shell color $15.23{\pm}0.40$, $0.88{\pm}0.27$, shell whiteness $72.61{\pm}0.57$, $90.00{\pm}0.35$, shell strength ($kg/cm^2$) $3.77{\pm}0.07$, $3.35{\pm}0.05$, shell thickness (mm) $0.38{\pm}0.003$, $0.38{\pm}0.002$, Haugh units $85.26{\pm}0.50$, $91.81{\pm}0.38$ and yolk percent (%) $30.17{\pm}0.18$, $27.32{\pm}0.16$ respectively. Theestimated heritabiliities of Taiwan's local chicken based on sire and dam components of variance were as follows: egg weight 0.20, shell index 0.1, shell color 0.87, shell whiteness 0.79, shell strength 0.37, shell thickness 0.14, Haugh units 0.24 and yolk percent 0.16. Genetic correlations based on sire and dam components of variance and covariance were also estimated. Generically, the shell index was positively correlated with egg weight, shell strength and yolk percent, and egg weight was negatively correlated with shell thickness, Haugh unit and yolk percent.