A back-to-basics approach toward managing, handling and storing eggs can help maximize the quality and hatchability of chicks being produced for broiler flocks, according to an industry expert.

Scott Martin, an independent poultry consultant specializing in hatcheries, said it can be tempting to set every egg delivered to a hatchery.

But if bird performance and farm profitability are to be optimized, staff need to make sure that only the best eggs make it to the hatcher — even if that means rejecting more eggs than they’re used to.

“We need to remember we’re in the meat-production business, not the egg business, and we need to produce the best quality chick we can for the customer,” Martin told delegates at an American College of Poultry Veterinarians workshop.

Read the full article on Poultry Health Today