The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread - Page 728

Hi Monique!   I have had some people who purchased eggs email with the same comments about some of our eggs.  We have some birds (Lavender orps in particular) that lay "porous" eggs regularly. 

They eat the same food as the rest of our birds, just as healthy, good layer crumble, de-wormed regularly, purina calf manna as a vitamin supplement (in addition to oyster shell) and vaccinated.  The chicks hatch just fine, robust and healthy.

Also wanted to update you on the eggs I got in January.   10 are in the hatcher and hopefully will hatch tomorrow (2/18)   I even taped the crack on one of them and it is in there too!  I just checked them and none have pipped yet. 

Cross your fingers they get themselves out of the shell tomorrow  !

Thanks Monique for the wonderful eggs!

Nellie

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Update!  Saturday 2/18:  They are starting to pip!

Thanks for the update Nellie.  I have five dozen pipping right now too that should hatch during the night and into tomorrow so I know nothing is wrong with the eggs but I hate to hear a complaint from an unhappy customer.

If you have porous eggs, just add oyster shell to their diet. That usually works.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ruth 

Thanks for the update Nellie.  I have five dozen pipping right now too that should hatch during the night and into tomorrow so I know nothing is wrong with the eggs but I hate to hear a complaint from an unhappy customer.

Wowey!  5 dozen You go girl!

Quote:

Originally Posted by kathyinmo 

If you have porous eggs, just add oyster shell to their diet. That usually works.

Thanks Kathy. The eggs are super hard.  I'm just wondering if what they see as being "too porous" is just the natural appearance of some Orp eggs. I'm not even sure that's what I would call it.  I just see them as being really transparent when you candle them but like I said, I don't have a lot to compare them to because all my other breeds are dark egg layers and I can't see through their eggs.  On those, I wait till lockdown and then candle.  I can tell if it's light inside or dark and if dark it goes into lockdown, if light, it's tossed. But I can't see any development or veins or anything like I can on the duck eggs or the Orp eggs or the Polish eggs.  The Polish eggs are white and do have a different shell appearance when candled.

Porous eggs can hatch, but are not desirable. Problem is that they lose moisture too rapidly during incubation. I think the statistics is around 30% hatch rate with fertile porous eggs.

I think it depends on how porous the egg is.  I don't seem to notice any difference in the hatch rate on the Lavender eggs (porous).  So what you are saying is they develop but die in the shell due to too much evaporation, or 70% never develop at all?  

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockinpaints 

I think it depends on how porous the egg is.  I don't seem to notice any difference in the hatch rate on the Lavender eggs (porous).  So what you are saying is they develop but die in the shell due to too much evaporation, or 70% never develop at all?  

Kathy had posted this info on the other Orp thread where I asked the same questions. It's my understanding that the stats show they don't hatch well, not that they never develop.  The customer that got my eggs said they ("the porous ones") never developed at all.  She said all the eggs weren't "porous".  From my own photos, neither of my eggs look like the one in the article below that Kathy posted. 

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Photo of a porous egg:

Above from here.

Below from here.

What Percent of Fertile Eggs Are Culls?

Depending on a company's situation, there can be considerable variation in egg culling. For example, if there is a strong demand for fertile eggs, as was experienced during the worldwide Myeloid Leikosis problem in heavy breeders, the focus must be on hatching the maximum number of eggs. At a commercial poultry integration, evaluation of results from more than 85 million eggs collected showed that under normal field conditions, the percent of cull fertile eggs should not exceed 4.0% during a 40-week production cycle. Table 1 shows the percent of the various categories for cull eggs during the four year period of the study.

These data are for normal conditions. However, if the market demands more fertile eggs and level of management at the breeder and broiler farms is excellent, less restrictive egg selection could be practiced. The 4% total cull eggs can be reduced to 2.5 to 3.0%. This can be achieved by decreasing the number of cracked eggs, by saving the mildly deformed and porous eggs, and by reducing minimum egg weights for incubation.

Hatchability of Cull Eggs

These studies have demostrated that many fertile eggs classified as culls can produce quality broilers, even though they have a reduced percent hatch. Use of these eggs is an efficient and practical way to increase the number of eggs and chicks produced per hen housed. Table 2 shows the results of more than 13,000 under-grade broiler fertile eggs that were incubated at the Poultry Integration Grupo Melo S.A. in Panama. Clearly, many fertile eggs that would have been discarded have the potential to hatch.

Table 2. 

Hatchability of undergrade eggs.

Jeremy, I took a few photos of my 9 day old chicks. The o[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/KeenerB/100_9336.jpg[/IMG]olor isnt that great due to lighting

Okay obviously I dont know what I am doing now or this new laptop is working different than my desktop. Let me see if this works[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/KeenerB/100_9341.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/KeenerB/100_9340.jpg[/IMG]