The truth about turning angle and turning frequency

Hatcheries constantly strive for high hatchability and excellent chick quality in an efficient production process. One way to improve production efficiency within the hatchery is by increasing the number of great quality chicks that hatch from existing equipment. This may be done by increasing the egg holding capacity of the setter trolley, which results in a larger number of eggs that can be placed in the same incubator. A consequence of increasing egg holding capacity in a setter trolley is that the egg trays are spaced more closely together than in a standard setter trolley. As a result, the turning angle of the egg trays will have to be reduced to compensate for the loss of space between egg trays.

Various studies have looked at the effect of turning angle during incubation on hatchability, but many compared quite extreme turning angles such as 30° versus 45° and a lot of literature is not very recent. HatchTech’s research team therefore performed two experiments focusing on turning angle to determine how far turning angle can be decreased without negative effects on embryonic mortality, hatchability, and chick quality at hatching.