The Process

At arrival of the hatching eggs, the broiler house needs to be clean, disinfected and dry. Also, a suitable litter bed needs to be in place and the house needs to be pre-heated. Aim for max. 28 °C floor temperature. Feeding and drinking lines have to be raised, in order to allow access of the NestBorn egg placing machine.

The climate-controlled truck needs to be clean, disinfected and pre-heated. Monitor temperature of the truck throughout transportation.

The hatchery uses the NestBorn egg placing machine to place the pre-incubated hatching eggs on the litter bed. The capacity is 60,000 hatching eggs per hour.

The completion of hatching process will take three days. During these days, the eggs need to be monitored and the NestBorn Monitoring Platform allows for a real-time and 24/7 remote surveillance. This Platform offers the possibility to measure both eggshell temperature and climatic conditions of the poultry house, allowing an easy and efficient on-farm hatching process.

Every day-old chick can hatch at its own pace. As soon as hatched, they have direct access to feed, water and light. Chicks will spread evenly throughout the poultry house. This results in robust day-old chicks that have hatched in a more natural way in the absence of any stress.

On chick placement day, unhatched eggs are collected and removed from the broiler house. 1^st day culls are also removed. Number of chicks at the start of the production cycle is determined as the number of placed eggs less the number of unhatched eggs and the 1^st day culls.

The foundation for a successful production cycle with healthy chicks has now been laid.