The Effect of Temperature and Storage Time During the Pre-Incubation Period

Hatching eggs from Rhode Island Reds (R.I.R.) and White Plymouth Rocks (W.P.R.) hens were subjected to ten pre-incubation storage treatments for 24 weekly hatches to investigate storage time × storage temperature interactions. The alteration of temperatures during different storage time periods as compared with constant storage temperatures had no significant effect on the hatch of fertile eggs. The results confirm that constant temperatures of 15° C. to 16° C. and 10° C. to 11° C. for short and long time preincubation storage respectively are optimum. For all treatment groups combined, malpositions and malformations were responsible for approximately 15% of the total embryonic mortality. Length of storage times and storage temperatures did not have a significant effect on chick body weight gains during the first ten days post hatching.