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Pre-incubation... the next step

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1Pre-incubation... the next step Empty Pre-incubation... the next step Sat Feb 18, 2012 9:05 pm

call ducks

call ducks
Full Time Member
Full Time Member

Hypothesis:
I believe that pre-incubation of hatching eggs has some truth and possibility. When I think about pre-incubation it makes sense that it could work. I think it will work because any eggs that were fertile would develop to a state in which they would remain fertile for a longer period of time than eggs that were not pre-incubated before starting the 21 day incubation. The purpose of this experiment is to find out if hatching eggs that are pre-incubated stand a better chance to hatch than eggs that were not pre-incubated. If pre-incubation increases the odds of eggs hatching this would increase how people can ship hatching.

Process :
I collected 3 day’s worth of eggs (about 18 eggs in total), I placed half of the eggs in the incubator that was set up and running for 3 hours to warm the eggs, to a state where they should be able to keep up to a month with out losing fertility. The other nine eggs were kept in plastic egg trays (where they were stored at ambient temperature for the three days). I did a “dry hatch” for this, I didn’t put any water in the trough for incubation. I filled up the troughs about half way (there were two troughs) at day 18. I used an automatic turner so the eggs were turned every four hours.


What I knew before hand:
Before hand I knew that chicken eggs and some duck eggs are extremely hard to hatch, I keep breeding pair or trio of the best, it is hard to get a lager amount of eggs to set at once. I thought that pre-incubation, would be a good idea on how I could store eggs until I had enough to make the incubator full . There was a post on a discussion forum that I am a member on and this sparked my interest in this idea. From what I gathered there was a little bit of research done, but I was never able to find any.


Materials:
~ 18 Chicken Eggs
~ One Hova-bator 1588 egg incubator
~ One Hova-bator automatic egg turner
~ ½ cup of water for hatching

The Results:
The final total hatch rate (for both groups) was 83.3%, this is the best hatch rate I have gotten. The hatch rates for control group was 77.8% with 22.2% not hatching, the hatch rate for the pre-incubated group was 88.9%.With 11% of the pre-incubated eggs not hatching.

In the control group, there were two eggs that did not hatch. With the pre-incubated group 1 egg did not hatch. All eggs up until day 18 developed normally.

UPDATE Notes: Jan 18th 2012 (about one year after study) Out of three eggs, the only egg that is devloping is the one that was pre-incubated for ~(there abouts)7 hours



Sources:
Experiment conducted by user "Call ducks"
Copy Right Colin Arenburg, the fallowing link must be included: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

2Pre-incubation... the next step Empty Re: Pre-incubation... the next step Sat Feb 18, 2012 9:06 pm

call ducks

call ducks
Full Time Member
Full Time Member

Can this be moved i see there is a section for these types of posts

3Pre-incubation... the next step Empty Re: Pre-incubation... the next step Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:14 am

CynthiaM

CynthiaM
Golden Member
Golden Member

I found your experiment rather interesting. I had read in another post somewhere, maybe on this forum even, about pre-incubating eggs, but I think it might have been chicken eggs that were experimented on in somewhere like, Africa or something, just can't quite remember.

I am a little confused though. The pre-incubation, was that started for a certain time and then stopped and the eggs held for a few days at an ambient room temperature? Think I would like to hear a little more about this. Did you only do the 18 eggs with the experiment, or were there other experiments. How long did you find you could keep the eggs. I don't understand how an egg could become fertile if it was not fertilized. Maybe I am missing something here, but sure would love to hear more. Interesting stuff. I am gathering eggs for incubation now and will be for about another week. Couldn't hurt for me to try an experiment too. Nice post, by the way, have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.

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