Good chick quality is crucial to maximise the return on investment in the total poultry production chain. Day-old chick quality is influenced by breeder flock, egg handling, and incubation conditions and is directly related to field performance. Optimally developed chicks exhibit improved average daily gain, improved feed conversion, improved breast meat yield or egg production, and improved survival in the field.

Visual scoring is a subjective method that is often used to select the non-saleable chicks. This is not expressed by an objective number.

Ongoing monitoring of the quality of day-old chicks is a key step in optimizing your hatchery results. To optimize your incubation process, it is important to use the correct method to evaluate chick quality.

Chick length is an effective and practical method to evaluate chick development. Chick length is positively related to yolk-free body mass at hatch and is an indicator of subsequent field performance. Chick length is a fast, repeatable, and non-destructive method to evaluate chick quality. Routine chick length evaluation as a standard procedure evaluates the quality of your incubation process. It is a tool to use to maximize your incubation performance, the performance potential of your chicks, and the return on your investment.

The HatchTech chick length website is a comprehensive guide to chick length measurement and analysis. Articles on the website discuss why chick length is the best measurement of chick quality and the measurement protocol and evaluation. This website also discusses how chick length can be improved when it does not meet the guidelines that are given.