Poultry tour shows excellence practices

As part of VIV Europe, a specialist tour to poultry operations in the Netherlands took place last Monday. Over 50 poultry specialists from 22 nationalities, joined the full day excursion to the Lagerwey broiler hatchery near the village of Lunteren. Onwards the group went to the Hatchbrood facilities of Lagerwey and the Rondeel alternative layer house near the village of Barneveld. See highlighs of the tour through the photo gallery below.

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Lagerwey is a privately owned broiler hatchery, based near the village of Lunteren, the Netherlands.
On arrival at the hatchery the tour participants were welcomed by Hatchtech staff.
Biosecurity comes first. All group members had to put on protective clothing and shoes.
Hatching eggs are supplied by own breeder farms, as well as by contract farmers.
The Lagerwey hatchery is the very first operation that was installed by Dutch based hatchery supplier Hatchtech, now 20 years ago.
From the moment the eggs have finished the setter stage, the trays are transferred to the hatchers. But first they need to be checked for fertility.
Before being transferred from the setters to the hatchers, non fertile eggs are taken out from the setter trays by a Viscon detection device.
For visitors from 22 different nationalities, the hatchery visit was an impressive experience.
Lagerwey is one of the bigger, if not the biggest broiler hatchery in the Netherlands. Currently they produce a dazzling 1.8 million day old chicks per week.
Every day intensive cleaning is the key to keeping the hatchery free from contamination and the machines in good condition.
The main principle of most systems supplied by Hatchtech, (like in the chick transport truck), is based on laminar airflow, providing air directly and near to the eggs or chicks.
An impressive cleaning system disinfects and clean the crates after use, making them ready for a next batch of chicks to be suppied to the grower farms.
Hatchbrood representative Carel van Neervoort explains to the audience all about the HatchBrood system named 1 plus 4 at Lagerwey
In the Hatchbrood system chicks are kept in units with special cradles to provide feed, fresh water and light, allowing chick a full kick-off.
The background about the Rondeel alternative layer housing system is explained to the group by technical advisor Tom van de Waarenburg.
The idea behind Rondeel is based on the principle of allowing chickens indoor and outdoor access and an aviary nesting system.
In the outdoor section, layers are allowed to bath in dust and woodchips.
A visit to Rondeel was a special experience, and the final part of the field trip.