Nowadays, more and more people are interested in chicken production, because this is a highly profitable activity in the poultry industry. However, during the egg hatching process, there are those who have problems, as the chicks die inside the egg.
If you want to know what are the causes of the death of chicks before hatching, we invite you to read this article, since the main factors of this problem and how to solve it will be described here.
Causes of death of chicks inside the egg
That the bird dies inside the egg can be due to several reasons, ranging from a bad incubation process to the presence of diseases. The most common causes are described below.
1. Lack of ventilation and humidity
Those who incubate eggs in an incubator could be doing a bad practice and not providing the embryo with the appropriate climatic conditions for its proper development. An incorrect humidity level causes the egg to dry out, causing the chick to stick to the shell and not be able to hatch.
Also, poor ventilation means that the bird does not have a good exchange of oxygen with carbon dioxide and as a result, the bird cannot hatch, which causes the chicken to not breathe and die asphyxiated.
2. Bad nutrition
A diet deficient in calcium, vitamins, and folic acid in hens can cause the chicks to not develop properly or to be too weak. Therefore, if the animal does not have enough strength or energy, it will not be able to break the shell and as a result, the chicks die inside the egg due to being trapped.
3. Undeveloped eggs
The eggs do not develop when there is low fertility of the parents. This problem is due to reproductive health problems, poor diet, or incompatible genetics.
Also, poorly developed eggs can be due to too long storage or inappropriate environmental conditions inside the incubator. This will make the eggs infertile or they can cause the death of embryos within the egg.
4. Diseases
Some diseases are responsible for chicks dying before they are born. Among the most common infections that can occur in chickens and cause egg defects are the following:
- Salmonellosis in chickens
- Avian streptococcosis
- Colibacillosis
- Aspergillosis
How to prevent the death of chicks before hatching?
Next, it is suggested to follow the following recommendations to prevent the chickens from dying inside the egg.
- Provide an optimal temperature to the eggs. The usual is 37.7 ° C in the first 19 days and decreases the following days.
- Maintain a humidity of between 55 and 60% the first 19 days and later increase the humidity to 70 or 75%.
- Maintain optimal ventilation, as this is essential to provide oxygen and air humidity outside the incubator.
- Have a good vaccination program to prevent the parents from contracting any disease that may affect the embryo.
- Supply minerals for broilers to strengthen the animal’s immune system.
- To constantly clean and disinfect the facilities and utensils, to reduce the risk of diseases.
- Provide the birds with an optimal diet that meets their nutritional needs.
In case the problem is that the chick cannot come out of the egg and therefore dies, then we invite you to read the article on how to remove a chicken from the egg since here it is explained how to carry out this process without hurting the bird and helping it to live.
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