Boholano: The Only Philippine Native Line With a Published Growth Curve
62Eggs
Station record. DOST-PCAARRD, August 2026.
40 gEgg weight
Station record. DOST-PCAARRD, August 2026.
63%Fertility
Station record. DOST-PCAARRD, August 2026.
not publishedMature weight, rooster
DOST-PCAARRD lists body weight among the traits its breed information system holds and publishes none of them for any chicken line. The morphometrics sit behind a sign-in.
not publishedMature weight, hen
DOST-PCAARRD lists body weight among the traits its breed information system holds and publishes none of them for any chicken line. The morphometrics sit behind a sign-in.
120 dTo market
Journal measurement, to 735.96 g liveweight. Nombrefia WC, August 2026.
Native typeFree-range standard
Named in PNS/BAFS 262:2018. Slaughter not earlier than 90 days.
The short answer
Boholano is the native line you can actually check a weight against. 735.96 g at day 120, measured on 809 birds over three generations at the Ubay Stock Farm sa Bohol. On eggs it sits at 62 kada inahin kada taon, level with Camarines and about half of Darag. If you are buying Boholano for meat, know the number first: that is 264 g short of a kilo at four months old, and the curve stops there.
Source Nombrefia et al. (2023), Philippine Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences 49(1):43-50 (read on August 22, 2026)
The curve, in full
Nombrefia et al. (2023) worked from two conservation projects at the DA-7 Ubay Stock Farm in Lomangog, Ubay, Bohol: twelve families of five hens to one cock, semi-confinement, half of them in 5 m² pens and half in 10 m², fed twice a day and vaccinated against Newcastle disease. Chicks were brooded 21 days and hardened from day 22 to day 45.
| Age | Mean liveweight | SD | Birds weighed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 28.26 g | ±2.26 | 885 |
| Day 21 | 101.89 g | ±26.45 | 885 |
| Day 45 | 227.12 g | ±55.64 | 884 |
| Day 75 | 430.91 g | ±101.09 | 870 |
| Day 100 | 584.65 g | ±126.21 | 836 |
| Day 120 | 735.96 g | ±151.01 | 809 |
Read the last row against whatever timbang the seller quoted you. The paper says it plainly, in its own words: Boholano is a “slow growing bird that attain a kilogram of body weight at the age of 20 weeks or more.”
That sentence is an observation, not a measurement, and it is still the most specific days-to-market statement published for any Philippine native line. The table has no row past day 120, and drawing the line further is not evidence.
Sixteen birds in every hundred did not reach day 120
The N column carries something the mean does not, and it is the more useful half of the table for anybody planning a placement.
885 chicks were weighed at day 1 and 809 at day 120. That is 76 birds gone across four months under research conditions, at a state stock farm, with a vaccination programme and daily records. The paper does not say what killed them, kaya hindi po ito kuwento tungkol sa sakit. What it does say is that a research flock lost that much, and a bakuran with no brooder and no NCD programme has no reason to expect better.
| Weight at a stated age | PublishedSix ages from day 1 to day 120, each with a standard deviation and a sample size. Nombrefia et al. (2023), the only such curve for any Philippine native line. |
|---|---|
| Eggs and egg weight | Published62 eggs per hen per year at 40 g, DOST-PCAARRD breed system, read 22 August 2026. Fertility 63 per cent, the lowest of the four lines. |
| Mature weight | Not publishedThe curve ends at day 120 and no adult figure is printed anywhere. A kilo at 20 weeks or more is the paper’s observation, not a measurement. |
| Feed intake and FCR | Not publishedFor this line and for the other three documented lines. No Philippine native feed conversion has ever been published to market age. |
The spread is the finding, not the mean
Look at the standard deviations rather than the means. At day 120 it is ±151.01 g against a mean of 735.96 g, so ordinary birds in that flock run roughly 585 g to 887 g at four months. That is within one generation, on one farm, under one management system.
That spread is what a keeper actually meets. Kaya band ang sagot sa gaano kabigat, hindi isang numero. It also explains why the heritability of body weight in the same paper runs 0.05 to 0.28 — low to moderate, meaning most of what you see at day 120 came from how the bird was kept rather than from who its parents were.
Fewer eggs, and one honest comparison
On the DOST-PCAARRD breed system Boholano sits at 62 eggs per hen per year, 40 g per egg, with fertility at 63 per cent and first egg between 20 and 22 weeks. Darag is at 110 and ZamPen at 105 on the same page.
So the trade is visible for once. Mas kaunti ang itlog, but this is the only line with a real growth record you can read before you buy. Whether a documented curve is worth 48 eggs a year is a decision, not a fact, and it is the only decision on this site where a native keeper actually has both halves in front of them.
Where the birds are
The nucleus is the DA VII Ubay Stock Farm at Lomangog, Ubay, Bohol, which is also where the curve was measured. The birds and the figures share an address, and among the four documented lines that is unique to this one.
Outside Bohol the practical route is LGU dispersal, and a Boholano bought two provinces away is a Boholano by name only unless the seller can trace the stock back. Ask how many generations sit between those birds and Ubay.
Questions people actually ask
How much does a Boholano chicken weigh?
735.96 g at day 120, with a standard deviation of 151.01 g, measured on 809 birds across three generations at the DA-7 Ubay Stock Farm in Bohol and published by Nombrefia et al. (2023). No mature weight is published. The same paper observes that Boholano chickens attain a kilogram of body weight at the age of 20 weeks or more.
How many eggs does a Boholano hen lay? Show the answer
62 per hen per year on the DOST-PCAARRD breed information system, level with Camarines and roughly half of Darag at 110. Egg weight is published at 40 g and fertility at 63 per cent, which is the lowest of the four documented lines.
Is Boholano a good meat bird? Show the answer
It is slow, and it is the only Philippine native line where the word slow has a measurement behind it. The published curve reaches 430.91 g at day 75 and 735.96 g at day 120. Judge a grow-out plan against those two numbers rather than against a table with no source on it.
Where does Boholano stock come from? Show the answer
The DA VII Ubay Stock Farm at Lomangog, Ubay, Bohol is the named institutional nucleus on the DOST-PCAARRD breed system, and it is also the farm the published growth curve was measured at. That is unusual and it is worth something: the figures and the birds have the same address.