The Egg-ucated Chicken — best practices
Increase Hatchability Using Better Hatching Egg Care and Storage Practices
Posted by Allison Rostad on
For breeders with small flocks that wish to hatch large quantities at a time, it’s necessary to collect fertilized eggs for over a week before having enough to fill an incubator. In this scenario, the older the eggs are before incubation begins the bigger the decrease of the hatch success rate. To ensure hatchability in eggs collected over a longer period of time it is important to practice good egg storage and care.
Hatchery Hygiene
Posted by Allison Rostad on
The nature of a hatchery provides the perfect atmosphere for bacteria to grow and thrive. With incubators running at 99-100^F and humidity levels varying between 40-80% at any given time, living bacteria can replicate rapidly and double it’s population within 20 minutes. Hatching eggs that are exposed to these bacterias have a higher mortality rate than those that aren’t. Maintaining proper cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting practices in the hatchery can significantly decrease the likelihood of hatching eggs being exposed to bacteria and ultimately increase the hatchability of the fertilized eggs.