EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

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Hi Sally!
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Hi everyone else.
 
PULLET EGGS said:

Pullet egg vs. Hen egg. both of these are Swedish flower



Quote:
There are positive and negative things about hatching pullet eggs.
It is true that many people hatch from pullet eggs all the time with no problems.
It's also true that the smaller chicks from small pullet eggs may catch up in size by a year or so.
Albumen quality in pullet eggs is usually pretty good and better than older hens.

So what are reasons not to do it?
A chicken deposits about 2 grams of calcium in an egg - regardless of age. So a pullet egg shell will be thicker than one from a mature hen and possibly more difficult to escape from.
There is clearly less albumen and a smaller yolk. That means less nutrition. Mammal babies can get all the nutrition they need from the mother and the abdomen can grow to accommodate. Once that egg is laid, that's all the nutrition and space there will ever be. That last point can't be overstated if you think about the size a chick of that breed should be at hatch or that the more nutrition available, the better the hatchability and the greater the vigor of the chick.
I've had old timers tell me that continuing to hatch from pullet eggs will decrease egg sizes in subsequent generations.

IMHO it depends upon how big the egg is supposed to be based on the breed.
The following probably wouldn't matter to most backyard chicken people or even noticeable to those with multiple breeds. But since I've eliminated all other breeds, it's very noticeable to me. And since I'm breeding to a standard, egg and bird size is an important part of that standard.
Eggs from the breed I raise are supposed to be 65 grams or larger. I've always tried to set eggs that were 55 grams or larger.
Then I had a predator massacre and only 3 mature hens survived. The pullets had just started laying eggs so I decided to set every egg I could get reducing my low weight limit to 45 grams. Now that those birds have matured, I see the results. Unlike past generations that started laying larger eggs by about 8 or 9 months of age, the eggs are still in the small/medium/large range rather than the XL and jumbo they should be by now.

I'm now paying much closer attention to egg size when I set and track results through adulthood and generations to follow.

ETA
Hoping to have hens laying in trap nests in the next month so my data keeping will get kicked up another notch or two.
I'll then know which hens are laying the darkest eggs, best production, largest eggs and then track their progeny.

Originally Posted by ChickenCanoe

pullet eggs

http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/4/959.abstract

This study corroborates what I wrote earlier.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15869849

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-635X2005000200002
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Quote:
http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/89/12/2735.full
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Last edited:
anyone that can find minis pic of the pullet vs non pullet chick and quotes it again for me, I would appreciate it!!
 

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