Hazeldene's, Australia

Hazeldene's is the third largest fully integrated poultry processer in Australia based in Lockwood, a hamlet clinging to Bendigo in the state of Victoria.

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The company has invested some A$39 million in a new processing plant, which was commissioned in 2012.
Part of the expansion is a warehouse.
John Hazeldene runs the company together with his sister Vicky. The family business was started in 1957 by their father Dick Hazeldene as a hatching and egg producing business.
The new plant is equipped with Stork equipment, such as the CO2 stunning system.
Scalding is carried out with a new system that uses hot air and steam to loosen the feathers before plucking.
Quality control is an important part of the slaughtering process.
There is enough space for movement of shackles through the new plant.
Chilling is still a bottleneck in the set up. Also the already existing further processing and packaging line limit utilising full capacity of the new slaughtering plant of 13,000 birds per hour.
Hazeldene's owns and maintains a modern fleet of refrigerated delivery vehicles. The company packs and delivers all of its own product and services Victoria and southern New South Wales 6 times per week and south Australia and Tasmania 5 days per week.
The breeder flocks are of the Cobb and Ross breed partially housed in barns like this one with Big Dutchman equipment. Some 150,000 hens however, are housed in the Vencomatic veranda system.
The breeder house is mechanically ventilated with side inlets and tunnel ventilation.
In case of a power failure a diesel generator steps in to make sure the ventilation system keeps operating.
At the front a pad cooling system is present to bring the temperature in the house down in summer.
A large water tank is installed to immediately have water available for the hens and for the pad cooling system.
Wayne Harrington is breeder manager and takes care of the parent stock farms.
The hens and the roosters are fed separately, the hens on the slates and...
...the roosters have a separate feeding system (left at the back) on the floor of the house.
The hatching eggs are collected manually at the front of the house and...
...are put on setter trays that directly go into the incubator.