The Effect of Film Permeability and Concentration of Nitrogen, Oxygen and Helium Gases on Hatching Eggs Stored in Polyethylene and Cryovac Bags

AN EXTENSION of the pre-incubation holding period for hatching eggs facilitates the reproduction of stock for both poultry breeders and commercial hatcheries. The poultry breeder can obtain larger families and thus reduce the environmental variance associated with numerous broods. Prolonging the practical pre-incubation holding time can also provide increased flexibility in handling the hatching egg inventories of commercial hatcheries. Reports by Becker et al. (1963) and Proudfoot (1964a, b), provide evidence that plastic packaging extends the preservation of hatching eggs. The adverse effect of flushing plastic packaged hatching eggs with carbon dioxide was reported by Proudfoot (1964a). Proudfoot (1964b) also reported on the beneficial effects of flushing plastic packaged hatching eggs with nitrogen gas which resulted in a further improvement in hatchability after 25 days in storage. The experiments reported here were undertaken to study the effect of film permeability and to provide further evidence on the effect of flushing…