This question has been bugging me for quite some time. I watched a thing on PBS about incubation in hatcheries (you know the assembly line methods). Anyway, I noticed they poke a hole in the air sac end of the egg when they remove from the turners....Why is that? Is it so they get a more successful hatch because the chicks actually have fresh air coming into the air cell or what? I think they are giving them the mareks shot but still just interesting why they do that.
Quote:Checking to see whether there's a chick or just a yolk, maybe? It's not like they have anyone watching the eggs to help out a pipper that can't cut through the shell. -Spooky
I don't know they had them on a conveyor belt with the air cell end up and this machine came down made a clicking sound and there was a little tiny hole in the end (like when you blow out an egg) and it went on to the hatcher drawer to hatch. I hate it when I miss part of a show. Then you wonder forever what happened and why
It's to inoculate them for Mareks. It might also allow fresh air into the air pocket, and increase the hatch %. These hatcheries have refined the incubation process to be extremely efficient, and a 1% increase in the hatch rate is huge for them. These huge poultry operations are incredibly efficient. While it seems cruel to us to debeak the birds, isn't it also cruel to allow them to pick each other and disembowel their flock mates? And, while caged birds might not be able to dust bathe, fly around, and do many things that our chickens are able to do, they also don't have to worry about predators, parasites, finding nutritious food and water, and keeping warm. While it would be nice to allow all chickens to be able to free range, it just is not economically feasible.
I was thinking about the hatch rate increasing but them not drowning because there is a fluid escape hole and also fresh air is in there. Just make me wonder, if we put a pin hole in the air sac on day 18 what it would do to everyone's hatch rate ....you know...
