Abstract: 【Objective】 Indigenous chickens,without systematic selection for economic traits,usually have low reproductive performance. This study aims to estimate the heritability of egg production performance to provide data for reproduction traits of Chinese indigenous chickens.【Method】 The S3 line,selected from Chinese indigenous Wannan yellow hens with egg production records,including number of egg production,clutch length,pause length,for three generations were used for egg production heritability estimation.【Result】 The egg production traits were in low heritability of Wannan yellow S3 line chicken. The heritability of egg number is 0. 189,average clutch length is 0. 091,maximum clutch length is 0. 098,the average pause length is 0. 035,and maximum pause length is 0. 035. The number of eggs was positively correlated with the average clutch length and maximum clutch length（P＜0. 05）,and was negatively correlated with the pause length and maximum pause length（P＜0. 05）. The clutch length of Wannan yellow S3 line hens ranged from 1 to 6 days at different weeks of age. The clutch length extended and egg production increased before 42 weeks of age with the generation selection. The increased egg production was associated with extended clutch length and shortened pause length at the age of 28～32 weeks in Wannan yellow S3line chicken.【Conclusion】 Egg production traits were in low heritability in Wannan yellow S3 line hen,while number of egg production at 28～32 weeks could be used as early selection trait,and maximum clutch length could be used as an indirect index for egg production selection.