Using an Optoelectronic Method for the Non-Destructive Sorting of Hatching Duck Eggs

Alpeisov S. Moldazhanov A. Kulmakhambetova A. Azizov A. Otebayev Z. Zinchenko D.
December 2025 Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)

AgriEngineering
2025 #7 Issue 12

The efficient pre-incubation selection of duck eggs is essential to ensuring stable hatchability, but most existing optoelectronic and machine vision systems have been calibrated for chicken eggs and cannot be directly used for duck eggs because of their larger size, stronger reflectivity and wider morphological variability. This study proposes an optoelectronic method specifically adapted to Adigel duck eggs that combines load cell weighing, infrared distance sensing and dual-projection image processing in a single stationary setup. A total of 300 eggs were measured manually and automatically, and the results were statistically compared. The developed algorithm uses adaptive Gaussian thresholding (51 × 51, C = 2) and a median 5 × 5 filter to stabilize contour extraction on glossy and spotted shells, followed by ellipsoid-based volume estimation with a breed-specific correction factor (K_v = 0.637). The automatic system showed high agreement with manual measurements (r > 0.95 for mass and linear dimensions) and a mean relative error below 2%. Density, the shape index (If) and the shape coefficient (K₁) were computed to classify eggs into “suitable”, “borderline” and “unsuitable” categories. A preliminary incubation trial (n = 60) of eggs classified as “suitable” resulted in 92% hatchability, thus confirming the predictive value of the proposed criteria. Unlike chicken-oriented systems, the presented solution provides breed-specific calibration and can be implemented in small and medium hatcheries for the reproducible, non-destructive sorting of hatching duck eggs.

duck eggs , hatchability , machine vision , morphometric analysis , optical sorting , shape index

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Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Kazakh National Agrarian Research University, Almaty, 050010, Kazakhstan
Faculty of Engineering Technologies, Kazakh National Agrarian Research University, Almaty, 050010, Kazakhstan

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science
Faculty of Engineering Technologies

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