UPDATED Hatchery Tour 2022

[Music] my name is scott seckler i'm owner of belle evans i'm here with my son and my daughter and today we're going to give you a tour of our beautiful new animal welfare focused friendly hatchery this hatchery is the first of its kind in the world it's organic a certification issued by pennsylvania certified organic that we help define because it's never been done before the equipment and processes you're about to see have taken years of research travel and collaboration to develop and we're really excited to show you around we began our construction of this 42 million dollar hatchery in june of 2016 and hatched our first chicks in august of 2017 a little over a year later this facility is 160 000 square feet and can hatch 1.9 million chicks a week at current build with planned expansions over the next 10 years we will be able to hatch 3.6 million chicks per week at this location this is belle and evans only operating hatchery every one of our chickens starts its journey here being completely formaldehyde-free and using only organic cleaners makes biosecurity that much more important to preventing disease in our hatchery and that's why we limit visitor access and decided to make this virtual tour the hatchery has two completely separate sides a chick side and an egg side to minimize potential contamination each side has its own employee entrance with badge access shower facilities and a break room each employee has a designated locker employees are required to shower on site prior to entering the hatchery floor a clean set of coveralls and hatchery footwear are provided we have these washing systems throughout the facility and drains that run along the floor so we can wash down the entire area we have quality assurance staff on site every day to perform routine inspections and make sure we're adhering to our organic and quality standards we even invested in a complete walk-on ceiling that allows maintenance workers to access any of the mechanical equipment for any area of the facility without having to come down to the main floor this also reduces potential contamination and is another unique feature of our hatchery [Music] hatchery operations begin when our drivers arrive with the eggs from one of our breeder farms there are two different docks one for receiving eggs and the other for loading clean trolleys to take back out to a breeder farm our drivers are bellin evans employees and fully trained in our biosecurity measures from the trailer we wheel the egg trolleys into a disinfectant room where an organic approved mist is released disinfecting the eggs over here egg trays are moved from farm trolleys onto setter trolleys via this electronic transfer system the setter trolleys move into incubation while the farm trolleys are washed and ready to use again margo will tell you more about incubation we have 36 incubation units that's about 169 000 eggs per unit at any given time we can have up to seven million eggs in our incubators the eggs are gradually preheated for 16 hours to get them up to temperature most traditional measures rapidly heat the eggs shocking them which is unhealthy for the unborn chick embryos the embryos develop in here for 18 days these units tilt the eggs to maintain uniform and precise temperature humidity and co2 levels which you can control from these screens [Music] after 18 days of incubation the trolleys are wheeled into this area for embryo detection these machines check every egg for a heartbeat before they go into the hatchers the screen shows which eggs are fertile and which are not the green dots stand for fertile eggs with viable embryos the blue for infertile eggs with no embryo and yellow for non-viable embryos the transfer system picks up only the fertile eggs and reshuffles them into specialized hatching trays this is important because if non-viable embryos were left in the hatching trays those eggs could decompose and expose the newborn chicks to harmful bacteria the trays with non-viable embryos are removed washed and sanitized to use again here viable embryos receive an organic approved vaccination against common poultry illnesses we never inject our eggs with antibiotics nor do we give a bell and evans chicken antibiotics at any point in their life most no antibiotic claims aren't even entirely true because the producer will sneak antibiotics into the embryo and still label their product as organic here you can see our hatch care trays each holds 90 eggs notice how the tray is only one level right now well that's about to change our specialized hatching system actually has two levels the egg tray sits on top of the hatching basket as the chicks hatch they move away from the egg debris to the lower basket where organic feed and fresh water awaits them this is our mini pelleted feed it's a proprietary organic blend that we use for the balance of nutrients that help our chicks thrive in their first days in traditional hatcheries chicks aren't given access to food and water until they arrive at their farms welcome to the hatcher's where the fun takes place kicks begin to hatch about 24 hours after they arrive here and hatch for about two full days the hatcheries are precisely controlled by temperature humidity and co2 levels and have fresh air circulation thanks to our state-of-the-art hvac system watch as the chicks hatch [Music] they make their way to the openings and drop down into the bottom basket this eliminates the need for a mechanical separator like traditional hatcheries use [Music] those are water troughs along the sides where fresh water is pumped through the channels for the chicks to drink they are lit with led lights to attract the chicks chicks quickly gravitate toward the water for their first drink they are pretty quick to find the feed as well [Music] after all the chicks have hatched about three full days after arriving in here we separate hatching baskets from egg trays the trays of shells are clean for reuse while the baskets of chicks go through an inspection process our main focus now is creating a low stress environment for our chicks so we have no mechanical handling or conveyor drops like you would find in other hatcheries our animal welfare standards exceed industry standards and our low stress environment helps us maintain organic certification our chicks are visually examined by humans in the safety of their hatching baskets chicks needing to be called because they won't make it are removed and go through slow induction euthanasia it's a humane method of administering co2 to put them to sleep this is another key difference of our hatchery healthy chicks pass through a vaccine mist that protects them from common poultry illnesses while still in their baskets with feed chicks are wheeled into a temperature controlled holding room with access to water until we're able to move them onto our chick trailer their competitors coming from other hatcheries they wouldn't have feeding water yet they have to wait there three days till they finally arrive at the farm i've been in many hatcheries over the years and i've met up with a lot of very unhappy baby chickens when the temperature isn't right and they're hungry they will scream and i've been in a room with more than 50 000 baby chickens that were not happy and you needed earplugs to work in there you can tell by these chickens here these chickens are happy you're looking at chicks that don't have stress the right temperature feed and water from the time they chirp their way out of that shell until they get to the farm that's how belle and evans gets a chicken to market that never had the use of an antibiotic the full stay here is about three weeks 18 days of incubation and three more days of hatching means that by day 21 chicks leave our hatchery and make their journey to our farms we have just one more thing to show you are check trailers these are no ordinary trailers but designed to be a true extension of our hatchery on board this trailer the chicks have the same precise climate control as they do in the hatcheries along with light and feed in their baskets [Music] these trailers have similar functionality to the hatchers they're divided into sections each having its own temperature humidity and co2 controls the radiators inside are linked to a chiller system to provide precise cooling to every section of the trailer and fresh air enters through the inlets on the roof this climate control system maintains ideal conditions for continued chick development during the ride to the farm which is less than an hour on average all along remaining in the same hatching crates with their food at the farm our chicks are welcomed by our farm families who will continue the same excellent care they experience at our hatchery when we see room for improvement we innovate and that's how this dream became a reality thanks for joining us today we're very proud to share with you our new hatchery since you've taken our hatchery tour i'm sure you can see how we earned the nickname the excellent chicken thanks for watching you

Channel: BellandEvans

Views: 31,760

Keywords: Bell & Evans, Bell and Evans, Bell & Evans Hatchery, World's first organic humane-animal welfare focused hatchery, chicken hatchery, poultry hatchery

Id: Zqhy43aPjBY

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 03 2022