Managing the hatch window

摘要

During a long intercontinental flight recently, I found myself thinking back on one of the first visits I ever made to a customer hatchery for Pas Reform toward the end of 2003.1 had just accepted my new position, and the visit was at a client's hatchery in Asia where they had very recently made the change from multi-stage to single-stage incubation. Upon arrival I received an enthusiastic welcome. The hatchery had already processed several hatches with their new single-stage equipment, and I was told by one person that hatchability had increased 5%, with another person citing an increase of as much as 7%. Everyone seemed very pleased with the quality of the chicks, having previously found substantial variations ranging from dehydrated chicks with long wing feathers, to chicks still wet at the moment of pulling. After the switch to single-stage incubation, they found the chicks much more uniform in appearance. In those days, the term "hatch window" was not widely used. Today, we would describe their observations as the result of a reduced hatch window.