Improving hatchability after longer periods of egg storage

摘要

People working with poultry breeding stock expect hatchability to decrease when eggs are stored for longer than a week. Stored eggs will have a higher rate of embryo death between two and three days of incubation, and need longer to complete incubation. This leads to some live chicks being rejected at take-off because they hatch too late to be useable. The rate of hatch loss with each extra day of storage is variable, and depends on farm and egg storage conditions as well as flock health, age and breed.