Choosing the Best Eggs

3KillerBs

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Jul 10, 2009
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I've been trying to read up on this in hope of getting an incubator for Christmas or, at least, having a broody next spring.

After I've chosen the birds I want to breed for their desirable characteristics and after I've eliminated dirty, misshapen, defective, or otherwise generally wonky eggs* what are some things to look for in the best hatching eggs?

How heritable are traits like color, speckling, and level of bloom?

I see in several articles to choose "medium" eggs, neither small nor large.

But does that mean Medium as in 49-56 grams (US standard)? Which doesn't make much sense if you want to perpetuate a laying flock for egg sales when people want to buy Large (56-63g) and X-lg (64-70g).

Or does it mean average for the breed?

Or just "not undersized and not huge"?

Also, should all the eggs set in a single batch be roughly the same size? I've read that bantams might hatch earlier than large fowl, does that mean that the smaller eggs in a batch might hatch sooner than the larger ones?



*I have 2 hens that I definitely won't breed because one is prone to calcium deposits and another lays weirdly-round eggs.
 
I've been trying to read up on this in hope of getting an incubator for Christmas or, at least, having a broody next spring.

After I've chosen the birds I want to breed for their desirable characteristics and after I've eliminated dirty, misshapen, defective, or otherwise generally wonky eggs* what are some things to look for in the best hatching eggs?

How heritable are traits like color, speckling, and level of bloom?

I see in several articles to choose "medium" eggs, neither small nor large.

But does that mean Medium as in 49-56 grams (US standard)? Which doesn't make much sense if you want to perpetuate a laying flock for egg sales when people want to buy Large (56-63g) and X-lg (64-70g).

Or does it mean average for the breed?

Or just "not undersized and not huge"?

Also, should all the eggs set in a single batch be roughly the same size? I've read that bantams might hatch earlier than large fowl, does that mean that the smaller eggs in a batch might hatch sooner than the larger ones?



*I have 2 hens that I definitely won't breed because one is prone to calcium deposits and another lays weirdly-round eggs.
To me, the smaller the egg, it might hatch faster, as it has more heat than a large one, but that is just what I think
 
I've been trying to read up on this in hope of getting an incubator for Christmas or, at least, having a broody next spring.

After I've chosen the birds I want to breed for their desirable characteristics and after I've eliminated dirty, misshapen, defective, or otherwise generally wonky eggs* what are some things to look for in the best hatching eggs?

How heritable are traits like color, speckling, and level of bloom?

I see in several articles to choose "medium" eggs, neither small nor large.

But does that mean Medium as in 49-56 grams (US standard)? Which doesn't make much sense if you want to perpetuate a laying flock for egg sales when people want to buy Large (56-63g) and X-lg (64-70g).

Or does it mean average for the breed?

Or just "not undersized and not huge"?

Also, should all the eggs set in a single batch be roughly the same size? I've read that bantams might hatch earlier than large fowl, does that mean that the smaller eggs in a batch might hatch sooner than the larger ones?



*I have 2 hens that I definitely won't breed because one is prone to calcium deposits and another lays weirdly-round eggs.
I assume medium is the normal egg that hen lays (not any weird larges or smalls that randomly pop out)
 
I don’t think size is so important as shape of the egg. You don’t want any with unusual shapes which may make it difficult for chicks to hatch. You want to make sure your pullets have been laying for at least a month before you incubate their eggs so they can work out any kinks in their system. I currently only incubate and hatch silkies from my flock and prefer to choose eggs that are over 40g. Though I did successfully hatch several pullet eggs that were in the low 30s this season.😊
I have also hatched standard and bantam eggs together in the past without problems. My silkies’ eggs to tend to hatch day 19 or 20 but this has not been a problem, I just pull the chicks out as they hatch.
Good luck!😀
 
So, as I prepare to set my first eggs, I've decided that I should, for the first run at least, choose perfectly-clean, perfectly-shaped eggs that weigh in within shouting distance of 60g since I want at flock that lays Large eggs and that's about the middle of the US Large range.

And that I probably *should* skip the Marans and learn candling on the lighter-shelled eggs. But I might not be able to resist because the Marans' eggs are perfect in size and shape.
 
If you get too picky you may not have any eggs to hatch. I went to alot of trouble to pick the ideal shape egg (within in a margin) by using calipers to measure the height and width and then figuring up the ratio.

The ideal ratio is supposed to be 1.4. A higher number represents a longer egg while a smaller number represents a rounder egg. If you want to play around with your eggs, length / width will give you the ratio of the egg.

The only fertile hen with my last hatch had the longest eggs of them all which did indeed hatch. The hens laid basically the same shape egg everyday and I could tell right off the bat which egg was fertile by looking at the shape so if you discard hen 'A' eggs then you probably will be discarding the rest of them too at least during the egg gathering period.

I also figured up the density of the fresh egg which didn't seem to matter since I had dense and non-dense eggs hatch.
 

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