Poultry Advisory Services (PAS) Advisory Services

Hatchery

A place where fertile eggs are brought, processed and day-old chicks are produced

Benefits of hatchery

  • Healthy chicks
  • More number of chicks at a same time
  • Improved hatchability

Incubation

  • Incubation refers to the process by which birds hatch their eggs, and to the development of the embryo within the egg
  • The most vital factor of incubation is the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period
  • The average incubation period for chickens is 21 days

Types of incubation

There are two types of incubation:

  1. Natural incubation: Incubation under a broody hen is the ideal way to hatch a small number of eggs. A hen can successfully hatch 12-15 eggs depending on her size
  2. Artificial incubation: Use of a machine which warms, turns, humidifies bird eggs to incubate and eventually hatch them

Requirement of incubation (in case of chicken)

  • Temperature (37.5℃ in setter, 36.5℃ in hatcher)
  • Humidity (RH = 55% in setter, 65 % in hatcher)
  • Ventilation / air (at embryo level Oxygen should be 21 %; CO2 = 0.2-0.3%)
  • Turning (in setter only 6-8 times a day)

Types of incubators

Still air

  • It is simple type of box in which no fan is provided, mostly used in villages in domestic level
  • In this incubator we maintain temperature by thermostat
  • For air we make some small holes
  • To maintain humidity, we use water trays in the incubator
  • Turning of eggs is done by hands (manually)

Cabinet incubator

  • It is large in size also called as force draft in which air is forced by the help of fan, we draft the air which is uniformly distributed
  • We provide fan to circulate the air that is distributed equally
  • Temperature remains constant on every egg, for the control of temperature we provide heater and thermostat
  • For maintenance of humidity water pipes are used; we provide fogging modifier which spray fog type air; hygro meter is used to measure humidity
  • It holds up to 1000 to 50000 eggs

Temperature and humidity requirement of different poultry species

Species

Temperature (°C)

Relative Humidity (%)

Setter phase

Hatcher phase

Setter phase

Hatcher phase

Chicken

37.5

36.5

55

65

Turkey

37.5

37.0

55

75

Geese

37.7

37.5

50-55

75

Duck

37.5

37.2

55

65

Guinea fowl

37.5

36.5

65

80

Japanese quail

37.5

37.1

60

70

Partridge

37.5

37.1

60

70

Pheasant

37.5

37.1

65

90

Ostrich

36.1-36.7

36.0-36.7

20-40

60-70

Embryonic mortality patterns with possible reasons

Stage

Days

Normal mortality rate (%)

Reason

Period-I

Before egg laying

0.6

1. Respiratory disease, large period in oviduct

2. Thick shell eggs

3. Too large eggs

Period-II

1-7

2.0

1. Poor egg storage conditions

2. Inappropriate egg fumigation

3. Non adjustment of food utilization by embryo from simple carbohydrate to complex protein & fat at 4th day of incubation

Period-III

8-18

0.6

1. Nutritional deficiency in breeder diet (Vitamin A, B2 & Se)

Period-IV

19-21

3.0

1. Inappropriate conditions in hatcher

2. Embryonic mal-positions