Increasing hatchability of turkey eggs by matching incubator humidity to shell conductance of individual eggs.

M. Meir*, A. Nir, A. Ar

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

One of the most important factors determining hatchability of avian eggs is the proper water balance of the eggs during incubation. In turkey eggs, a total diffusive water loss (F) of 12 +/- 1% SD initial egg mass in 28 days, yielded maximal hatchability irrespective of the combination of eggshell water vapor conductance (G) and incubator humidity (PI), which brought about this water loss. A good correlation was found between G as obtained at the beginning of incubation and the final F in a given PI. The G in a random sample of 1256 fresh turkey eggs was normally distributed around the mean of 18.70 +/- 2.87 SD milligrams (100 g X day X torr)-1 (Coefficient of variation = 15.3%). The distribution of G in eggs with dead in the shell embryos had, in addition, two more peaks of G values [around 22.5 and 13.0 mg (100 g X day X torr)-1]. When eggs were sorted into low (less than 17), medium (17 to 20), and high (greater than 20) G categories, and incubated at low (19.4), medium (26.6), and high (33.9) torr PI, respectively, hatchability increased by a factor of 1.08. Poor hatchabilities were obtained in mismatching humidities and conductances. It seems that hatchability success may be experimentally improved if a correct rate of water loss is fitted to sorted eggs during incubation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1489-1496
Number of pages8
JournalPoultry Science
Volume63
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1984

Funding

FundersFunder number
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development891-0028-82

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