How to choose an egg for an incubator? Laying eggs in the incubator

With the onset of spring, many owners of household plots lay eggs in an incubator to receive young animals and update the number of chickens, as well as other poultry. To obtain good results on breeding chicks, first of all, a number of necessary preparatory measures should be performed. You also need to be able to correctly select the egg for the incubator and observe the prescribed temperature and humidity conditions during embryo development.

Preparatory activities

In spring, the body of poultry is short of vitamins and minerals. Therefore, it is important to develop a balanced diet for laying hens. Getting a good offspring from a weakened bird will be completely impossible.

To replenish the body of vitamins can be fed chicken green cabbage leaves and red carrots. If there is no possibility of making barnacles from fresh vegetables, they should be replaced with special additives. The lack of mineral substances is compensated by sprinkling the food with chalk, a small amount of salt, feeding the eggs to eggs, slaked lime, bone meal , etc.

Visual selection of eggs

The result of such a procedure, like the independent withdrawal of young poultry, is greatly influenced not only by the correct feeding of the parent herd. To get viable, healthy, active chicks, you also need to select the right egg for the incubator. Do this with the following recommendations:

• The selected eggs should not be too large or small. In the first case, the probability of death of an embryo is higher. Of very small eggs, very small chickens hatch. In the future they grow up in small-mouthed chickens.
• Eggs should be clean.
• They should not be chipped, rough, etc.
• In addition, they must have a smooth, neat, better almost round shape. Of the eggs, slightly flattened on the sides or too sharp, the chick will be difficult to get out.
• Broiler eggs for the incubator are taken from chickens not older than 1.5-2 years. It is desirable to comply with this rule and in relation to layers.

Selection with the help of an ovoscope

By collecting eggs for incubation, it will be very useful to use this device also. When inspecting, you should pay attention to the following points:

• The yolk should be located in the middle. When turning in a good egg, he quickly assumes the previous position. If one of the white flagella is torn off, the yolk remains at the edge when performing this procedure. Such an egg is not suitable for incubation.
• The air chamber should not be too large (about 2-2.5 cm). Its correct location is at the blunt end, exactly in the middle. Eggs with a biased camera in the specialized literature are advised to discard. However, there is another opinion. Some experienced poultry farmers believe that eggs with a displaced (slightly) camera are usually hatched. Therefore, if young animals are not grown for meat, you can experiment.
• Of course, you can not take eggs for incubation with a yolk torn and mixed with protein.

The rules for collecting

The eggs intended for incubation are stored at a temperature of about 8-12 degrees for a maximum of five days. With a longer period, hatchability is significantly reduced.

Take the egg for the incubator from the nests every 1.5 to 2 hours. If you leave them for a longer period, the chickens will trample over them. As a result, the protective layer of the shell - the cuticle - can be damaged. For the same reason, take the eggs from the nest carefully, holding two fingers for sharp and blunt ends. Store them best in a basket horizontally or store paper cells. In the latter case, eggs are laid with a sharp end down.

Bookmark

So, the selection of the "material" is over. Next, let's see how to lay eggs in the incubator correctly. Experienced farmers advise placing them at once with one large batch. If you make a bookmark in parts, as they become available, later, problems may arise with creating conditions for uneven-aged young. In addition, in this case, the incubator will only be washed once - after the last batch of chicks. This is not very good, because with each hatching inside the device there is a shell, slime, etc.

To make a bookmark is best in the evening - about 16-22 hours. In this case, on the 22nd day the hatching will be completely completed.

Incubator: temperature for chicken eggs

After the bookmark, you must follow the following mode:

• The first two days the temperature inside the incubator should be 38 ° C;
• From the third to the tenth - 37.8 C;
• From 11 to 16 - 37.5 C;
• From 17 to 19 - 37.2 C;
• From 20 to 21 - 37 C.

The indicator of humidity in the incubator should be about 50-60%. During the withdrawal period, it should be raised to 68-72%. Otherwise it will be difficult for chicks to leave eggs. The normal development of embryos can be achieved only with a 46-fold exchange of air per hour. To do this, twice a day the incubator for chicken eggs is opened and ventilated. This contributes to the full development of embryos.

In non-automated devices, ventilation is performed simultaneously with turning the eggs. When carrying out this procedure, the shell should also be sprayed with a light solution of potassium permanganate to increase humidity and disinfection. Such rules should be observed when bookmarking in any incubator. The temperature for chicken eggs, indicated above, must be observed without fail.

Withdrawal of chickens

In the last two days before hatching, the eggs are turned over, the humidity is raised, and the temperature is lowered. Hatching chicks in the event that the rules of incubation were not violated, depending on the breed for 21-21.5 days. Young leaves are left inside until the feather is completely dry. Then it is transferred to a nursery with an air temperature of about 38 grams. The incubator should be cleaned from the shell after transplanting all chickens. Of course, it must be thoroughly rinsed.

Goose eggs in the incubator

The procedure for the independent withdrawal of the chicks of this poultry is almost identical to that described above. Gather goose eggs for incubation for 5-7 days. They are usually laid in a horizontal position.

Of course, use in this case should be a special incubator for goose eggs, because they are three times as big as chicken eggs. Do not place them too tightly. In this case, good ventilation will be provided. From the first to the 15th day, the temperature inside the incubator should be 37.5 grams. Starting from the 16th day, it is reduced to 37.4 g. Like chicken, goose eggs in the incubator should be ventilated and turned over at least twice a day.

Duck eggs

Artificial breeding of young birds of this bird differs in some of its features. The shell of duck eggs has very large pores. In addition, it is often highly contaminated. As a result, the infiltrating inside sometimes causes the death of the embryo. Therefore, during the incubation period, it is necessary to monitor the condition of the shell. If it has darkened and acquired a bluish or greenish hue, the egg should be removed. The embryo has already died in it. The temperature for eggs in the incubator should be 37.7-37.8 ° C in the first 1-8 days. From 9 to 24 it is reduced to 37.4-37.3 ° C.

Helpful Tips

How to lay eggs in the incubator, and also what should be the microclimate inside it, you now know. Further we will give some advice, which, probably, to someone will be useful.

In order to measure the temperature on the surface of the egg, you can use a conventional mercury thermometer. This procedure is very simple. The thermometer is positioned so that the mercury tank touches the surface of two eggs just below the air chamber.

The sex of the newborn chicks can be determined by the wings. The hens feathers are longer than the covering ones. Therefore, in the drawn wing alternate short and long skeletons. In males, they are absolutely the same in length. Selecting an egg for the incubator, it is worth carefully probing its sharp end. It is believed that if it is slightly rough, and it has a characteristic calcareous "ring", the hen will most likely hatch from it.

When breeding a large number of chicks on the farm, they are sorted. The chickens are divided into several groups:

• Conditioned young (mobile, active);
• Substandard (firm on legs, but have slightly enlarged abdomen);
• Weak (not mobile, sitting with closed eyes, do not respond to sound);
• Cripples (have physical defects).

The last two groups are subject to disposal.

In the fall in private households young animals are extremely rare. However, perhaps someone will be useful to learn that at this time of year the chicks are well irradiated with ultraviolet. This stimulates the production of vitamin D by the body. For irradiation, mercury-quartz lamps PRK 2 can be used. They are placed about a meter from the brood from above and periodically turned on for 5 minutes.

The incubator for goose eggs can be used to extend the shelf life. In this case, pre-disinfection by soaking in a weak solution of potassium permanganate (at t 40 gr.). Processed eggs in this manner are heated in an incubator for 5-6 minutes. (At t 38 g). Then they are sealed in a plastic bag and placed in the refrigerator on the lower shelf. Store eggs before the bookmark in this case can be up to 30 days.

The independent withdrawal of poultry is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. The main thing is to correctly select and store eggs, as well as to observe the temperature and humidity regime in the development of embryos. Turning eggs in an incubator is also a necessary procedure.