- Location
- Ledbury, Herefordshire
You'd hope they were many times better - high volume small margin production means that small percentage gains/losses have a big impact on the bottom line.We had 30 free range layers in a hut though.
The percentage losses were no worse on that programme as those we experienced small scale with chicks under a heat lamp. I’d say the conditions in that big shed were as good if not better than traditional small scale production. You can’t even let them outdoors even if you wanted to due to avian flu restrictions so the big automatic shed is the only practical way forward other than for niche specialty poultry.
For me the set up looked it couldn’t really be bettered.
I know that with a table top hatcher, I might get 60% hatch rate (it was a rubbish one mind, certainly with respect to controlling humidity/manual turning). We were at 90%+ at Faccenda.