Lohmann Hatchery Guide

28 LOHMANN TIERZUCHT › MANAGEMENT GUIDE 28 In this guide, we have spoken of “chicks’ quality”. This is the appearance of the chicks in the basket of day-old chicks, and in general this is determined by the hatch- ery operator according to how the chicks look and what they feel like to touch. › › Activity attention and fast reaction of chicks › › Uniformity › › Good navel condition, closed, with per- fect cicatrising › › Nice yolk sac absorption with a soft bel- ly, but not too slim › › Legs in perfect condition, not dehydrat- ed or damaged, no red hooks › › Beak clean and not damaged or in- flamed, caruncles perfect › › Fluff condition vaporised dry and not dirty, with a nice smell In summary, the first point of control should be reached for if our chicks don’t respect one of these conditions. 1. In a normal case, a right pull-out time at the right ventilation condition is the key for active and reactive chicks. 2. Uniformity varies with the quality of hatching eggs and their size and weight at deposition. Other factors that can damage or promote our chicks’ uniform- ity include genetic background, age, health of eggs, shell composition and relative different weight loss of eggs. 3. Incubation and hatcher should be sta- ble in temperature and humidity, for the chronological development is the solu- tion at no perfect chick’s navel. 4. Perfect weight loss of eggs, correct pull- out time, development in the right em- bryologic temperature, correct hatcher ventilation and qualitative hatching of eggs in good health and with the right percentage of yolk/albumen/shell, are points to pay attention to, for having a soft and nice belly. 5. Right pull-out time, correct tempera- ture at the end of the incubation time, correct temperature in the hatcher ma- chine, favourable condition for short hatch windows, and darkness in the hatcher, to maintain good chicks’ legs. 6. Long permanence in machine long hatch windows, and hard cutting and exit from eggshell. 7. Ventilation and oxygen at hatching of chicks, correct temperature for the chicks which have just hatched, poor eggs tournament, eggs health and sani- tiser condition at the production farm. It is important to remember that in hatch- ery life, some adjustments are necessary in consideration of flock age, season, and some other variable conditions (pull-out chicks in incubation time or prepare a different pro- gramme) the correct monitoring of chicks can help you to take some different deci- sions and find a solution for the best setting. Different systems exist for monitoring format and for standardising the chicks’ quality, which depend on the subjective opinion of every hatcher manager. It is im- portant not to forget the following: “Ogni scarrafone e bello a mamma sua” = “every bitch is beautiful to the mother” . . . But this isn’t what we want. When we ask visitors to the hatchery for their opinion about the quality of some of the chicks, we commonly receive these answers: Nice . . . Not bad . . . not good . . . These are not form of answering. for a good hatch- ery process and some monitoring we can answer the question with reliable data. HATCHER Monitoring chicks and quality control