Poultry Notes

Hutt News, Volume 11, Issue 10, 11 August 1937, Page 5

Poultry Notes

KEEPING EGGS FOB HATCHING,

After the eggs are gathered it is necessary that; they have proper care until they are put under a hen or placed in an incubator. The very 'best way is to set them the day they are laid. But when you are using only the eggs from a few hens, this cannot always be done. Under proper conditions they may be kept for a week or two, .but I prefer to use them within a week, if possible. Eggs can be hatched when they are a month old, but it is not the best to wait so long, as the chicks that are hatched have but little vitality, and it is very difficult to raise them. No matter how the eggs are careid" for, the evaporation of moisture 'begins at once, taking with it some of the material necessary for the growth o,f a strong chicken and this depreciation continues and increases until the eggs toecome worthless for incubation.

The age of the egg before commencing to incubato has much So do with the amount of moisture to be supplied during the process of incubation. A perfectly fresh-egg in a properly constructed incubator should never require supplied moisture. While moisture may be supplied so as to produce a satisfactory hatch, yet the same quality of material cannot be replaced that was lost by evaporation, and the vitality of the chick is weakened to a degree corresponding 'to the age c*f the egg. Contrary to the usual advice I most emphatically say that it .is not the best when keeping eggs for hatching, to turn them every id-ay, for it weakens the albumen, and allows the yolk, with the germ on its upper surface, to come hearer to the shell, until it finally becomes attached, when the egg is worthless for incubation. The same principle is involved as in' shaking the eggs or otherwise roughly handling them, namely, that the albumen become disintegrated, and no longer holds the yolk iu its proper position, with the result as already stated. And the less the eggs are handled the 'better. As the temperature of eggs is increased during this period of waiting, evaporation o,f its moisture increases in proportion. An egg kept at a temperature of 80 degrees will lose as much weight in one week as it would in two weeks at a temperature of 55 degrees; and its value at two weeks is not equal to that of eggs kept at a temperature of 55 degrees, as the former is too high to retain the germ in a perfectly dormant condition. A temperature below 50 degrees is better for eggs that arc to be hatched than any point higher, and it may go as low as 35 degrees with safety.

Eggs that are iutenilcd for hatching should never .be placed with the small end down; it is not their natural position, and after standing on the end for a week or two the germ will float near the air cell in the large end of the egg. Then when incubation begins the chicks will grow naturally for about ten days, after which the growth will not •be normal and will net be properly ■matured at hatching time. This is also more likely to bring the chick's head at the small end o,f the egg,,.making it nearly impossible for it to free itself from the shell without help. Incubation will start at a temperature of 85 degrees.