What’s Hatchery in Poultry Farming

Hatchery

The hatchery is a special building with controlled ventilation. It contains machines for holding and incubating a large number of eggs. The hatchery is designed with hygiene in mind and is laid out so that there is little chance of any contaminating organisms travelling back from hatched chicks to eggs brought in later.

First Stage of Incubation

The first stage lasts for 18 days and is called “setting”. During setting, the eggs are placed on special trays which can be tilted through 90 degrees, from side to side. The temperature and humidity of the air in the setter is controlled so that conditions inside each egg are suitable for the growth and development of the chick.

Second Stage of Incubation

On the 18th day, eggs are transferred to a different tray, which cannot be tilted, and placed in another machine called a “hatcher”. Eggs are transferred to hatchers so that hatching chicks do not contaminate other batches of eggs being incubated. The hatchers can then be thoroughly cleaned after every hatch. By the end of the 21st day, all chicks have hatched and are ready to be removed from the machine. They are taken to a special room and removed from the hatcher tray. They are then placed in chick boxes (usually up to 100 in a box) ready for delivery to a farm.