THE RIGHT EGGS FOR INCUBATION
When a novice farmer takes his first steps in poultry farming, he faces the most important questions: where to get eggs for incubation and what should they be? To answer them, you need to consider many nuances.
Where do I get eggs for the incubator?
The easiest option is to buy eggs for an incubator at a large poultry enterprise or from a private farmer. Experienced poultry farmers note that it is preferable to take eggs at large enterprises, where buyers are ready to provide a full set of documents and the necessary veterinary permits. Eggs from stores are not suitable for incubators, since they have not been fertilized.
The incubation material directly affects the percentage of quality of the brood young. Therefore, when choosing eggs for laying in an incubator, it is so important to pay attention to the condition of laying hens, their age. Whether you take eggs from a chicken, Turkey, or quail, the hen must be young and healthy. She should not be prone to infectious diseases, and her age should be at least seven months. These indicators may differ significantly for different types of poultry. Do not take eggs from hens of a younger age. Otherwise, the young offspring will be frail and weak, sickly, they will lack almost all the qualities necessary for healthy development.
The choice of eggs for the incubator is also influenced by their weight. Each specific type of bird has its own indicators. The optimal weight for meat hens is 70 g, for egg hens – 60 g, for quails - 10 g, for ducks and turkeys - 90 g, for geese – 140 g.
Important points when choosing eggs for an incubator
When selecting eggs for the incubator, several important nuances should be taken into account.
Only freshly laid eggs are used for laying in the incubator. They are characterized by almost transparent contents and barely noticeable yolk.
Pay attention to the air chamber located on the blunt side of the egg. In the center of the blunt end should be located a whole yolk, it is not allowed to spread. In this case, there should be a slight shift towards the air chamber.
During the selection process, it is important to check the mobility of the yolk by gently rotating the egg. If it moves freely inside, it is better to refuse to purchase it. To carry out such a check, you need to be extremely careful, since with a sharp rotation, the yolk can break away from its place, which will destroy the embryo. Eggs for the incubator must be absolutely clean, the presence of reddish inclusions is not allowed.
The shell must also be whole. It should not be chipped, unevenness and roughness. The presence of dirt growths on its surface is not allowed.
Before selecting eggs for the incubator, all material is carefully screened. It is important to remove dirty, broken, too small or too large specimens.
How long are eggs stored before being put in the incubator?
Ideally, fresh eggs are laid in the incubator, but many do not have this option. In this case, you can use material that was stored without violating the rules for no more than one week. For each type of poultry, the allowed periods for storing eggs before placing them in an incubator vary. Without harm to the quality of chicken eggs lie from 5 to 6 days, duck and Turkey eggs lie up to 11 days, goose eggs have the longest shelf life – up to 16 days.
How to select eggs using an ovoscope?
When choosing eggs for the incubator, you can use a convenient device-an ovoscope. The following points should be taken into account during egg screening:The air chamber located at the blunt end should not be too large. If its size is too large, or it is located in another place, you should not take such an egg. But there is an opinion of experienced poultry breeders that specimens with a small displacement of the air chamber can still be used for an incubator. From them, chickens are most often bred.
In good eggs, the yolk is centered. When the egg rotates, it should quickly return to its place.
Eggs with mixed white and yolk should be rejecte.
Goose egg
The principle of selecting goose eggs for an incubator is no different from choosing chicken eggs. But they are three times larger than chicken, so you can not do without special incubation trays for their bookmark.
Duck egg
The peculiarity of duck eggs is that they have a shell with large pores. In this case, the shell is often highly contaminated. As a result, dirt penetrates through the pores and destroys the embryo. Consider this point when choosing duck eggs. If an egg has appeared in the incubator, the shell of which has darkened or turned green, then it is necessary to immediately remove it, since the embryo in such an egg has definitely died.
Determining the sex of Chicks
Experienced poultry breeders easily determine the sex of already born chicks. To do this, just look at the shape of their wings. Hens have elongated flight feathers. If you pull back the wing, you can see how short and long feathers alternate between each other. They are always the same length for cockerels..
You can check the sex of future Chicks at the stage of selecting eggs. To do this, it is enough to gently feel the sharp end of the egg. If there is a rough ring, then it is highly likely that a chicken will hatch out of it. After the eggs are selected, and until the moment of laying, they should be stored in a cool room.
