This section contains the default settings for incubation.
After adding a new egg you can alter any of these default values applied to it.
Temperature Scale to use: Select Celsius or Fahrenheit.
Increase pip time by: If you have an egg with a set to pip time of say 30 days and you weigh it on day 30.4 aims needs to increase the pip time in order to calculate the weight loss correctly. This value by how much AIMS will increase the pip time if needed.
Days between incubator fumigation: This will crate reminders for you for fumigating your incubators.
Fresh egg weight hours: The value here is used to determine if AIMS will use the weight taken as the fresh weight or use a Kw to calculate it.
For example you have a laid from date and time as yesterday at 18:00 and laid to as today as 06:00 and you take the egg at 06:00 and weigh it. If this value is set at 12 hours or more AIMS will take the 1st recorded weight as the fresh weight. If it was less than 12 hours it would use a Kw value to calculate the fresh weight. An unincubated egg loose very little weight in the nest and so it is safe to use the default of 24 hours.
Days between clutches: AIMS will calculate for you which clutch an egg belongs to for any given season. This value is used for the number of days between eggs to calculate if they belong to one clutch or another.
Default weigh loss at pip: This is set by default as 12% minimum, 15% optimum and 17% maximum. Eggs outside of this range will be marked in red on the egg control and will be automatically marked to watch. You can set this to any value on each individual egg as some species hatch better with higher or lower % loss than 15% optimum. I personally have the defaults as 14%, 15% and 16%.
Default for adding incubators by batch: This are the temperature and humidity to add by default for new incubators you are adding to the system as a batch entry in the add incubator wizard. You can later alter these for each particular incubator or hatcher.
Method of fertilisation: When adding a new egg from a female for the first time this will be the fertilisation method added by default. You can change it on each egg. Once the first egg has been added for a female and male combination and if you have use last fertilisation method ticked, AIMS will fill the entry on the egg with the last used method for that male and female combination.
Method of sterilising egg: If you sterilise your eggs before setting them this is the default entry added for each egg.
Days before pip to alert user: When eggs are coming up to pip AIMS will change the colour of the egg on the egg control to make is easy for you to see these eggs. The value here is the number of days before the egg is due to pip that AIMS will do this for you.
Pip to hatch time: The number of hours you would normally expect to be for pip to hatch.
This is used on Pip Labels to provide you with the expected date and time of hatch. This allows you to keep en eye on eggs more easily in your hatcher.
Auto print pip note: If you have an entry in pip notes for the egg, such a pipped low, ticking this box will print these after the pip label so that you can have these with the egg for the hatcher.
Auto mark eggs to watch: If this is ticked and the has any items which AIMS deems it to be marched to watch AIMS will alter the symbol for the egg to a warning triangle and flag it to be watched. These include:
Low or high weight loss
Low or high density
Going over set pip time.
Auto increase pip time: If you have an egg with a set to pip time of say 30 days and you weigh it on day 30.4 aims needs to increase the pip time in order to calculate the weight loss correctly. AIMS will increase the pip time if needed if this checkbox is ticked by the amount in the Increase pip time by entry.
Auto generate egg numbers: If this is ticked, the default, AIMS will auto generate egg numbers for you. These will be sequential numbers 1,2,3,4 etc for each breeding season. ON the next season AIMS will reset the number back to 1. If you would like to use your own egg numbering system untick this box.
Add egg number after save: If this check box is ticked AIMS will allocate the egg number only after the new egg record has been saved. This was added because in very early versions of AIMS had issues with loosing egg numbers if the egg record did not save and the user cancelled the record entry. This no longer occurs and this has been added for backward compatibility.
Print 2nd pip label: When you pip an egg AIMS can print a pip label for you:
These go with the egg to the hatcher and provide you with the detail of the egg.
If this check box is ticked AIMS will print two of these labels.
When the egg hatches one can go with the chick to the dryer and the 2nd with the shell for DNA sexing. That way you do not get any mix ups between egg shells or chicks.
I alway move egg to hatcher: When you pip an egg AIMS will ask you if you want to move it to a hatcher. If you say yes you will be taken to the egg movement tab, AIMS will add a new record for you and you just type in the ID of the hatcher you want to move the egg to. You then press TAB and the record is saved and you are taken back to the pip / hatch tab.
If this check box is ticked AIMS will not ask you if you want to move to the hatcher it will automatically goto the movement tab and make the record. This saves time as you would normally move it to a hatcher on pip..
Default value for viewing eggs: When you open the egg management form this entry will be used as the default for the view eggs by setting:
Density warning level: When you enter a new egg AIMS will warn you if the density if high or low. The density is normally influenced by the egg shell thickness, high density eggs have a thicker shell. You can use this warning to set the egg in a machine of appropriate humidity from the start. So high density if a dry machine low in a wetter one.
`Egg drill size: If you drill an egg to increase it’s weight loss AIMS allows you quickly to add a note for this into the notes of the weighing. AIMS uses the value here to create the note.
To do this you check the Drilled checkbox on the egg weight form:
Show % loss in egg control: If this check box is ticked, the default, AIMS will display the % loss in the egg control that the egg will achieve at pip. You might want to tun this off if you are loading the control with a lot of egg and have a slow computer.
Use last fertility method: The first time you add an egg for a particular female / male combination AIMS will use the setting in the preferences for Method of Fertilisation for the egg. If this checkbox is ticked then next time you enter and egg for a particular female / male combination it will use the last method used for that pair. This speeds up data entry for you as you would normally use the same method for a particular female / male combination, be that Natural, Voluntary AI or Forced AI etc.
Contact incubation %: Normally one woudl nto use a contact incubator for the full term of incubation. The value here is used by AIMS to warn you that the egg needs to be moved out of the contact when that % of incubation is reached. This is done when you weigh the egg.
Egg Note Wording: The egg page has eight buttons which allow you to add quick notes when weighing eggs.
The entries here are used for that wording. You can change these when you are weighing eggs by right clicking on any of the buttons. A form will then come up allowing you to change the wording on any of them.
