Chick Quality – Part I

2. Age of the PS

As the flock ages the eggshell quality decreases. While hens younger than 30 weeks of age could produce more immature chicks which require the best brooding conditions (thermoregulatory system development) hens older than 67 weeks produce poorer quality eggs (eggshell and internal quality).

3. Health status of the PS

Any disease impacting on eggshell quality and/or internal quality (infectious bronchitis), and chick quality and livability (salmonella, Escherichia coli, mycoplasma, chicken anemia virus, avian encephalomyelitis etc.). Therefore, it is important to have a monitoring plan and evaluate the status of these diseases.

4. Feed quality

Is critical to follow the recommended levels of vitamins and minerals from the management guide. Not following them could decrease chick quality, fertility and/or hatchability.

• Always check the label of the vitamins/minerals premix and confirm that the levels are within the optimal range. This is even more critical in hot weather conditions and/or in situations of drop in feed intake. Optimal premix storage is critical to prevent a decline in vitamin levels.

5. Water quality

Suboptimal water could carry diseases, toxins, or high levels of minerals. A constant water disinfection is critical to prevent bacteria or viruses. It extremely important to check periodically the microbiological and mineral quality of the water.

6. Characteristics and quality of hatching eggs

• Egg weight: Incubate eggs of at least 50 g and from flocks of at least 22 weeks of age. Ideally incubate batch of eggs averaging 58 to 61 g (between 50 g and 70 g) with good uniformity (>90%). This contributes to have good hatchability, hatch window and chick quality.
• Egg shape: depending on the abnormality is the degree of impact on hatchability (see Table 1). Only incubate normal shape eggs.

• Egg shell quality: good eggshell provides protection and optimal Ca source and homeostasis for a good embryo development. Flock age, nutrition, season, and management impact on eggshell quality.
• Eggs with poorer eggshell quality are more susceptible of bacterial contamination affecting chick quality (see Graph 1).
• Clean eggs: Only use clean eggs. Never use floor eggs. To prevent floor eggs and improve the nest utilization, it is critical to achieve a good training in rearing. Disease, nutrition, water quality, management, cleanliness of the nest (and egg belts) and characteristics of the equipment play and important role in having clean eggs.

When incubating dirty egg there is always risk of hatching chicks that may have high morality due to bacterial diseases (see Graph 2 and Table 2).

Table 2. Effect of nest clean status in bacteria count and cumulative mortality at second week.

Egg storage: the longer the storage the poorer the chick quality. Research done by Tona (2003) showed the longer the storage time of hatching eggs the poorer the chick quality (see Graph 3). In addition, the body weight gain at 27 days after placement is lower in chick hatched from eggs stored for a long period (> 14 days). Short Period of Incubation During Egg Storage (SPIDES) can be used to mitigate the impact of long storage.

7. Transportation of Hatching eggs

Transport the hatching eggs in clean and disinfected truck. Designated only for hatching eggs transport. The temperature should be within the range of 18 to 22°C and relative humidity between 40 to 60%.

Condensation on the eggshell must be avoided at all costs because moisture on the eggshell impairs the natural mechanism of defense of the egg against microorganism and provide optimal conditions for microorganism multiplication. The table below can be used to predict if condensation will occur when no additional measures are taken.

Table 3. Prediction whether sweating will occur if no additional measures are taken.

In part two we will cover pre- and post-incubation factors that affect chick quality. Stay tuned for the next edition.

PDF