The Effect of Pre-Incubation Treatments on the Hatchability of Chicken Eggs

RECENT publications on the subject of pre-incubation treatments for hatching eggs have indicated that (1) holding eggs at room temperature or (2) heating eggs at incubator temperatures for short periods may be beneficial to hatchability. Hutt and Pilkey (1930) suggest that incubating eggs four to five hours directly after laying could result in the development of the embryos beyond the critical stage associated with pre-gastrulation. Hays and Nicolaides (1934) reported that eggs from hens with high hatchability contained more advanced embryos than eggs from low hatching hens, while Taylor and Gunns (1935) reported no correlation between the size of the embryo in the unincubated egg and hatchability. An increase in hatchability through the use of warming treatments applied to hatching eggs prior to incubation was reported by Kosin (1956) and by Becker and Bearse (1958). The work reported here was carried out to obtain further information on this subject through …