The document discusses the importance of maintaining hatching egg quality from collection through incubation. Key points include: 1) Hatching egg quality cannot be improved after lay but must be properly maintained through collection, cleaning, storage, and transportation. 2) Proper management of nests and nesting materials, egg collection frequency, containers, cleaning, storage conditions, and transportation help preserve the delicate embryo structure inside eggs. 3) Maintaining optimal temperature and humidity levels during storage, transportation, and pre-heating is critical for hatching egg quality and subsequent chick quality.

1. Maintenance of
Hatching Egg Quality
Muhammad Arslan Musa
arslan2062@gmail.com

2. Roadmap
Introduction
Why maintenance is critical?
Management for optimum quality maintenance
• Nest and Nesting Material
• Prevention from Floor Eggs
• Frequency of Egg Collection
• Hatching Egg Container
• Egg Cleaning and Disinfection
• Egg Storage
• Egg Transportation
• Egg Holding room at Hatchery
• Pre-Heating before incubation

3. Introduction
• Breeder with good management and balanced ration produces
good quality hatching eggs
• Hatching egg quality cannot be improved after lay but
maintained
• Hatching Egg Quality can be compromised during
- Collection
- Cleaning
- Storage and Transportation

4. Optimum Hatching Egg Quality
+
Better Incubation Condition
= Better Chick Quality

5. Why Maintenance is Critical?
• When egg laid, it contains a delicate structure “floating embryo” of 30,000-
60,000 cells
• It needs special care to preserve the growth so that it can be re-initiate
during incubation
• Ova fertilized in infundibulum, enters into isthmus where zygote divides into
2-cells, then into 4 cells after 20 minutes, 256 cells after 4 hours
• Egg should be cooled down gradually to 18-240C in 6-8 hours after lay

6. Management for optimum quality
• Nest and Nesting Material
• Prevention from Floor Eggs
• Frequency of Egg Collection
• Hatching Egg Container
• Egg Cleaning and Disinfection
• Egg Storage
• Egg Transportation
• Egg Holding room at Hatchery
• Pre-Heating before incubation

7. Nest and Nesting Material
• Nest should be installed at least 3-4 weeks before start of production
• One nest is sufficient for 4-5 hens
• Nest are of 2 types
- Manual Nest
- Roll-away Nest

8. • Nesting material should be enough, dry, clean and mold free
• Should be replaced regularly
• Train birds to use nests
• Wet litter lead to poor nest condition & resulted in egg shell
contamination

9. Prevention from Floor Eggs
• Floor eggs are contaminated and affect hatchability and chick
quality
• The possible reasons for floor eggs are
• Improper time to install nests
• Improper nest number
• Poor nest condition
• Bacteria mostly penetrate just after 30 minutes after laying
• Egg shell contaminated from dirty floor

10. Frequency of Egg Collection
• Greater importance in maintenance of hatching egg quality especially
in extreme weather
• Egg collection should be frequent to minimize contamination and
preserve better egg quality
• At morning, flock lays most of the eggs, which lead to pre-incubation
for the eggs collected later
• As the egg sit in nest to lay an egg, it can warm the old lay eggs and
problematic to preserve floating embryo

11. Hatching Egg Container
• These can be of 3 types
- Plastic flat
- Fiber or Paper Flat (many disadvantages)
- Wire bucket ( chances of cracks)
• Plastic flats should be used
• Proper Air Circulation
• Facilitate gradual cooling
• Can be disinfected
• Facilitate the proper fumigation of eggs

12. Egg Cleaning and Disinfection
• Dirty eggs reduce hatchability and chick quality
• The egg can be contaminated at
- Cloaca (300-500 bacteria attaches)
- Nesting material
- Floor Eggs
Egg Lay
Start to
cool
Egg
contents
shrink
Creates
negative
pressure
Optimum time
for bacterial
penetration

13. • Egg cleaning are of 2 types
- Dry Cleaning (sand paper, wiping,
polishing)
- Wet Cleaning (Luke warm water 900F)
• Disinfection of egg
- Fumigation (3X)
a) Formalin : KMnO4 (35 ml : 15.5 g (1X)
b) Paraformaldehyde 10g/m3
- Spray (QAC, Formalin, Iodine etc)

14. Egg Storage
• Egg storage is critical step in hatching egg quality maintenance
• Egg should attain 18-240C after 6-8 hours after laying
• Mostly eggs stored b/w 1-3 days
• The storage mainly depends upon temperature and RH
Days Temperature (0C) RH (%)
0-3 18-21 70-80
4-7 15-17 70-80
10 or more 10-12 70-80

15. Positioning and Storage for Longer Period
• When eggs are stored more than 10 days, then
• Store the egg with narrow end-upward
• Turning the egg at 900 has beneficial effects

16. Egg Transportation
• Eggs are transported in specific environment control trucks
• The eggs should be transported with minimum of jerks
• It is better to provides temperature and RH as in storage room
• The temperature for transportation should be at least 180C and RH
should be 60-70 %

17. Egg Holding at Hatchery
• Egg should be stored at least 12 hours at hatchery before
incubation
• The temperature for egg holding room should be 650F with 60-
70% RH

18. Pre-Heating before Incubation
• To prevent egg sweating (difference more than 110F cause
sweating)
• It is done by providing the condition as
- 77-800F Temperature
- 50-55 % RH
- 8-12 hours time

19. Impossible= I m possible