A reminder about the rules for storing hatching eggs before placing them in the incubator will be useful for beginners. This short cheat sheet takes into account all the features of egg selection and storage. Home-raised chickens are cheaper. The cost of the incubator quickly pays for itself. To achieve 100% hatchability, eggs must be properly collected and stored until incubation.
How to select eggs for incubation?
Absolutely healthy laying hens are transferred to a separate enclosure.Their eggs will be placed in an incubator. Mature chickens aged from 7-9 months to 2 years are suitable for breeding. Meat and meat-egg breeds from 8 or 9 months, egg breeds from 7, because in the former, puberty occurs later.
Selected females are provided with proper feeding, consisting only of natural products:
- main feed grain;
- additives - chopped hay, cabbage, carrots.
If there are no vegetables, Tetravit is added to the grain porridge for chickens. It contains all the vitamins necessary for the life of a laying hen:
- A;
- F;
- E;
- D3
Additives that affect egg production (intensity) are excluded from the diet of female breeders. First, the eggs are assessed visually.
Their weight should not exceed 65 g. Small specimens are also not suitable. Criteria for selecting breeding material:
- clean, smooth shell without cracks, patterns, or sagging;
- average size and weight (55-65 g);
- correct shape, the presence of a blunt and sharp tip, a smooth transition between them.
The main condition is that you need fertilized specimens with one yolk. To do this, there should be 1 male for every 8 females in the chicken coop. The quality of the selected material is determined using an ovoscope. Good specimens are considered to be those that:
- yolk in the center;
- The air chamber size is 2 mm, it is located at the blunt end right in the middle.
The length of daylight is not increased so as not to stimulate the laying hens. Eggs from intensively laid hens are not suitable for breeding. Seeds larger than average have a low hatchability percentage. The chickens that emerge from them are sick.
When to remove eggs from the nest?
Raw materials for the incubator begin to be collected in March.Do this several times a day, observing a certain interval:
- after 2-3 hours in a warm room (in summer);
- after 1 hour in a cold room (cold season).
With this approach, the number of serious shell defects, cracks, and scratches is minimal. Chickens usually lay eggs in the morning and early afternoon.
If the nests are rarely inspected, the hen stops laying eggs and sits in the nest to hatch chicks.
Egg storage technology before incubation
For storage, take cardboard or plastic cells. The collected seed material is placed in them in one layer. Place the pointed end down. Hold the ends with two fingers. The shells are most often not washed or wiped. It is covered with a thin supershell film (cuticle), which protects the fertilized embryo from infection.
Dirty specimens are rejected, and the date of collection is marked on the blunt end of good ones. Do this with a simple pencil. When choosing a storage method, experienced poultry farmers give preference to plastic cells. Cardboard absorbs moisture, causing mold to appear on it.
A fungus that gets on the shell can harm the embryos.
Storage space requirements
The material selected for the incubator is stored in a special way. The room is maintained at a certain temperature and humidity. Under optimal conditions, the aging of seed material slows down. To create the desired microclimate, the warehouse is equipped with a reliable ventilation system.
Humidity
High air humidity is maintained in the room; a psychrometer is purchased to control it. The normal range is considered to be 75-80%. The drier the air, the faster the egg ages and rapid weight loss occurs..
| Humidity percentage | Weight loss (%) after 10 days of storage |
| 80 | 0,7 |
| 60 | 2,4 |
Temperature
Install 2 thermometers indoors and take outdoor ones. A large error in the readings indicates a malfunction of one of them. Optimal storage temperature chicken eggs before being placed in the incubator — 8-16 °C. Embryos die if it drops below 5 °C.
Recommendations for storage temperature in relation to the shelf life are given in the table.
| Shelf life in days | Recommended air temperature |
| 2-3 | 14-16 °C |
| 4-6 | 2 days - 11-13.5 °C |
| remaining days - 14-15 °C |
Shelf life
The longer the egg is stored, the less likely it is to hatch. The percentage dependence is shown in the table.
| Duration in days | Number of young animals (%) |
| 5 | 90 |
| 10 | 80 |
| 15 | 70 |
| 20 | 24 |
| 25 | 15 |
Guaranteed
In optimal conditions, eggs can be stored for 6 days without compromising the quality of the future offspring. In fertilized specimens, the yolk and white dry out daily. Liquid leaks out of them. Reducing the volume of the nutrient medium negatively affects the development of the embryo.
The sooner the egg enters the incubator, the higher the hatch rate.
Maximum shelf life
To obtain a large batch of chickens, collecting the required number of eggs is delayed. Poultry farmers use certain methods that allow them to preserve the life of embryos and slow down the aging process:
- periodic heating of seed material;
- turn the eggs 45° every 3 hours when storing horizontally, from a sharp end to a blunt end when storing vertically.
Rotating the seed material increases the percentage of hatchability of chicks, this allows you to add 2-3 days to the storage period. When turned over, the yolk does not dry out, the protein strands holding it in the center do not come off. The maximum period for collecting hatching eggs should not exceed 12 days.
Consequences of incorrect conditions
The first mistake that novice poultry farmers make is selecting low-quality seed material. Eggs of any size are placed in the incubator. About 38% of the offspring bred from small specimens (weight less than 52 g) die. Large eggs do not hatch or hatch with serious pathologies.
The second mistake is the lack of an ovoscope. By limiting control to visual inspection, the poultry farmer risks missing serious defects:
- small cracks and growths on the shell;
- deviation in the size of the air chamber;
- displacement of the yolk, its drying to the shell;
- not to notice blood clots, the presence of a second yolk.
The quality of incubation is influenced by the correct selection of producers, their age and quantity. The fertilization of eggs depends on them. An important point is the storage conditions and its duration. If the temperature and humidity conditions are unsuitable and eggs are stored for a long time, the hatchability rate is low, and the chickens appear weakened and with developmental defects.
The quality of seed material is adversely affected by sharp fluctuations in room temperature. Because of them, condensation forms on the shell. Moisture particles are a favorable environment for the development of pathogenic microorganisms. They can infect the embryo.
The rate of aging of eggs increases with poor ventilation systems, when the temperature and humidity in the room are controlled by opening windows or doors. Strong air movement (draft) accelerates the evaporation of moisture from the white and yolk of eggs.
Raising your chickens is not easy. Buying an incubator is only part of a complex process. A lot of time will be spent on selecting breeding hens and roosters, collecting hatching eggs, and creating conditions for its storage. A brood of healthy chickens will compensate for the time and effort spent.
