Holy Smokes! Be sure and let us know what all you catch!
I don't have time to read all that so would you mind enlightening me? What would dipping eggs in vit c do prior to hatching? Is that when they go into lock down or on the 20th day?
Here is the last post on the subject
#10792 of 10800
07/25/14
ozexpat
Platinum Poultry
Quote:
Originally Posted by Penny Hen View Post
The link was actually to using a Vitamin C dip. I decided to substitute vinegar. Here are some of the links to this:
http://www.epsaegypt.com/pdf/2011_june/15- 1271.pdf This link is about dipping the eggs in Vitamin C.
http://www.arsveterinaria.org.br/index.php/ars/article/viewFile/515/857 This link is about injecting the eggs with the Vitamin C.
http://ejfa.info/index.php/ejfa/article/viewFile/12010/6146 This was about injecting Vitamins C and E in Muscovy eggs.
http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/publicFiles/84953.pdf This is about feeding Vitamin C and selenium to layer hens.
http://cabdirect.org/abstracts/20113110385.html;jsessionid=A7661977F1DF4BF48A62DCF1EB514283 This one compares dipping and spraying the eggs with Vitamin C.
When you read these you will find that the Vitamin C is doing more than getting the eggs clean. Significant weight gains and food conversion is noted in the young animals. I was substituting vinegar because my main goal was to stop bacteria. I knew that if the eggs in the studies stood up to 5% acidity of the Vitamin C then they could take the same level of acidity from the vinegar. I also knew that that level of acidity would kill most of the bacterias out there.
In the future I would like to do a comparitive study between regular vinegar and ACV. I would also like to compare Vitamin C with vinegar both on hatchability and in weight gains and food conversion. First though I need a reliable incubator that won't muddle the data by killing my eggs. So that is my first goal.
My response
Fascinating stuff. I love reading research articles. I spent most of my adult life promoting evidence based healthcare in the cardiology sector. A long way from chickens. Since I became an incubator addict, I dove right into research of chickens. I have read hundreds and hundreds of full print articles. Thanks for these links.
So here is my take on the research.
All the articles are looking at Ascorbic Acid (AA) as a nutrient rather than a cleaner. The first article shows statistically significant improvement of hatchability by dipping eggs in a solution of 5g AA per Liter and 10g AA per Liter pre setting. The final article looks at dipping or spraying with AA in concentrations of 20g/L and 30g/L respectively buy in the latter part of a Muscovy Duck egg hatch
5g AA/L = (weight of solute/volume of solutionx100) 5g/1000mlx100= 0.5% AA solution
10g AA/L = 1.0% AA solution
The concentration of AA is significantly less than 5%.
The results are quite interesting. A 3.6% increase in hatchability is significant for me - My goal is to get up to 1000 chicks per week so 36 chicks is another employee's salary. Its $150/kg of 100% Ascorbic Acid on
ebay. A little goes a long way.
There is nothing in the research that discusses Ascorbic Acid as an egg cleaner/sanitizer.
I googled acids as egg cleaners.
Manna Pro Egg Cleanser contains (In order of concentration) Water, Yeast, Citric Acid and Potassium Sorbate. As Citric Acid is third on the list, mathematically it can not be greater than 33% solution.
The instructions advise to use 2 caps in a fallon of water. Presuming a cap is 1/2 an Oz and there are 128 Oz in a gallon - the final solution is 0.4%
Manna Pro Egg Cleanser and at a maximum possible citric acid concentration of 0.13%.
I could find nothing on Acetic Acid as an egg cleaner. Vinegar at 5% Acetic Acid is very corrosive. I would strongly recommend not using it - especially at full concentration but look forward to your research either way.
Cheers
