How Does Daily Cooling of Eggs Help??? Does It Increase Water Loss???

[Gracie9205]

I wouldn't say that I actually have a cooling period for my eggs, but I do hand turn all of them so they do get some amount of cooling. I take the rack out of the cabinet incubator, and give them a quick turn. I usually candle a couple just for kicks, but this whole procedure may take a few minutes tops. I just hatched 14 out of 15 eggs last week so it seemes to be working!

I have 3 other batches in 3 different incubators, so I will let you know how they turn out. I am not cooling for longer than a couple minutes, and I am not misting. Results to follow...

 

[ghulst]

I don't feel that cooling is needed in forced air. Good hatch Debby

 

[pete55]

Hi All

All very interesting and a wide range of experiences. It seems some eggs do not require special treatment and they hatch vigorous goslings. I know I incubated a friend's Toulouse a few years ago and they had excellent moisture loss and a very good hatch rate. However, these were utility Toulouse. Africans also have a reputation for easliy acheiving a required moisture loss.

The use of broodies confirms my own and others experiences - the birds just cant be beaten. It seems that you can give a broody bird some eggs from the same clutch and their air cell development is excellent but eggs from the same clutch being incubator hatched do not lose sufficent moisture. Certainly with our parrots I let the parents incubate for about 75% of the incubation period and achieve excellent results, if the mother is a poor sitter then I incubate under pidgeons.

However there are always instances where broodies are unavailable or cannot incubate the entire clutch and these have to be placed in the incubator. Here in the UK the Exhibition Dewlap Toulouse have the reputation for being difficult to hatch with a high number of instances where they die just before internal pipping. Where this has happended to ourselves then it was these eggs that had small air cells and poor weight loss. However it seems that daily cooling does improve the hatch rate and promote a higher rater of moisture loss.

I think the use of broodies is a key to minimising losses, especially if approx 75% of the incubation is done by the bird. It's my opinion that this is achieved by a number of key factors;

Almost perfect temperature control.

Almost perfect turning, especially during early development of the embryo and supporting membranes.

???Natural cooling periods

Also are the eggs slightly scuffed/abraded in the nest which again may promote good moisture loss and gas exchange.


I do hope others will keep conributing to this thread and debate

Reagrds to all

Pete