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The quality of a hatching egg laid in a dirty nest is automatically lower than an egg laid in a clean nest. Replace or regularly clean the nest pads. As soon as you notice the first signs of ‘bangers’ in eggs from a parent flock, inform the breeder farm. Higher chick mortality can also be directly linked to poor hygiene status and quality of the laying nests.
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When a hatching egg is laid it is warm. The cuticle is still soft and can be permeated by bacteria. The egg then cools slowly, but the cuticle hardens within a minute. The most critical period for a hatching egg is therefore the first minute after laying. An egg laid on the floor or in a dirty laying nest can never be made ‘clean’. The dirt on an egg is full of bacteria and moulds. These bacteria can permeate the eggshell. The presence of bacteria inside an egg will cause spoilage more quickly, cause the death of the embryo and if pressure is produced by gas inside the egg, it may even explode - a ‘banger’. Floor eggs are unsuitable as hatching eggs! Up to as much as 1,000 times more bacteria can be found on the surface of floor eggs than on eggs laid in nests. Preferably, avoid setting floor eggs, and never place dirty eggs among clean ones. If a hatchery decides to incubate floor eggs, take additional measures to prevent cross contamination and separate the lower quality day-old chicks. Dirty eggs are usually placed on the lowest setter trays so if they explode in the incubator, the clean ones underneath are not contaminated. It makes no sense to incubate floor eggs separately and then mix the day-old chicks. These inferior chicks will never perform well and they will infect the rest of the flock! Each hatchery/integration has its own protocol for supplying floor eggs separately. A hatchery that disposes of these poor-quality chicks or raises them in a special unit avoids passing the problem on to the other links in the production chain. This has benefits for the performance and profitability of the entire chain!
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Dirty eggs
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Egg bacterial load Extent of dirt
Bacterial load (# bacteria per mm2)
Fresh egg
300
Clean egg
3,000
Floor egg
25,000
Dirty egg
400,000
The bacterial load increases rapidly with the degree of soiling of the eggshell.
The limits regarding the degree of soiling What is the limit of the degree of soiling? Which eggs can you set or not? Yes
4. E gg h a n d l i n g a n d q u al i ty
Uncertain
No
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