Long-term directional selection in a population can severely reduce the additive genetic variability for the desired trait. Therefore, it is really important to assess the genetic parameters of a population at definite time intervals for designing effective breeding programmes. The present study was designed for the genetic evaluation of a White Leghorn strain (IWI) which has been intensely selected for higher egg numbers up to 64 weeks of age at ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The genetic parameters were estimated for egg production up to 24 (EP24), 32 (EP32), 40 (EP40), 52 (EP52), 64 (EP64) and 72 (EP72) weeks of age along with other traits (egg weight, reproductive and body weight traits) utilising six models with different random effects in a Bayesian framework. The normalised mean value for the primary selection trait, EP64, was 218.16 ± 1.24 eggs while the total egg production up to 72 weeks was 242.85 ± 1.72. Comparative evaluation of different models based on Deviance Information Criterion (DIC) revealed that model 6 (including direct additive, maternal genetic and maternal permanent environment effects) was the most accurate for early production traits like EP24, whereas model 3 (including direct additive and maternal genetic effects) was the best-fitted for egg production traits like EP32 and EP40. The trait variance for late egg production traits like EP52, EP64 and EP72 was best defined by model 1, which only included the direct additive effect. Furthermore, it was found that the posterior mean additive heritability of egg production traits declined as the laying cycle progressed. Particularly, for later traits like egg production up to 52 (EP52), 64 (EP64) and 72 (EP72) weeks, the direct additive heritability estimate was very low (0.02 ± 0.009
0.04 ± 0.01 and 0.02 ± 0.0009 respectively). Subsequently, posterior genetic correlations (r