CHAPTER IX 



THE HATCHING EGG 



THE purpose when producing hatching eggs is to secure a 

 fair number of good-sized fertile eggs, which will hatch into 

 healthy chicks. 



Fertility. The most important quality in eggs for hatch- 

 ing is that they be fertile, and the germ of high vitality. 

 One of the common causes of infertility is low vitality in the 

 parent stock, and this lack of vitality may be inherited, or 

 due to improper environment. Another frequent cause of 

 infertility hi the early spring is frozen combs. In February 

 and March, when eggs are being saved for hatching, and there 

 are spells of cold, damp weather, the cocks often freeze 

 their combs and wattles and this unfits them for breeding 

 for from four to six weeks. Most of the eggs saved under 

 such circumstances will be infertile, or the germs they con- 

 tain will be weak, and will not develop properly, or the eggs 

 will hatch poorly. Season has its effect upon the fertility 

 of eggs. During the spring, which is the natural breeding 

 season, eggs are always of higher vitality than in any other 

 season of the year. In the hot summer months the germs 

 in the eggs are often weak. 



Another cause of low vitality is that there are too few 

 breeding males. It is wiser to mate a small number of 

 females to one male, and thus insure high vitality, than to 

 crowd the females. If the breeders are too fat the result 

 will be infertile eggs as well as low vitality. Quite commonly 

 the germ dies, and hi these cases the eggs, when tested, will 

 appear infertile. Holding the eggs too long before incuba- 

 tion, keeping them at too high a temperature, or subjecting 

 them to violent shocks or rough handling before incubation 



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