COMMERCIAL FARMS
Until the end of the world war two most of the chicken production in the USA was located on small farms. These farms usually did not have more than 400 chickens. But after the war commercial farms started to appear. Many people moved to cities, large trucks could carry chicken products far away and commercial farms became our main source for chicken products. There are two types of commercial chicken farms. Ones are used for meat production and others are used for the egg production.
BROILER FARMS
Broiler farms are used for meat production. Chicken is one of the most popular foods around the world, therefore farmers have to produce a lot of chicken to satisfy the demand. Today large broiler farms can have 300,000 or even more birds. Because of new technology one chicken handler can care for about 20,000 chicken in one hour. That means that each chicken handler could take care of 200,000 chicken in ten hours. Caring for broilers is a 24 hour a day job. While large commercial farms can bring lots of profit, they also have problems. Diseases can spread really quickly and that can affect market.
In broiler farms, farmers take care of chickens since they are only a day old. These chicks are bought from the breeder and raised. It is important that chicken get right vaccine. In addition, the farm has to be kept very clean to prevent the spread of diseases. When chicks are babies, they are fed a lot. Their handler makes sure that they have enough food and water.
We could not visit a broiler farm due to biosecurity surrounding the Avian Flu.
LAYER FARMS
Layer farms are set up for egg production. To learn more about the works of the egg layer farm we visited Tampa Farm Service farm in Dade City, Florida. It was a very unique experience, especially since we come from the urban area. The first thing we noticed as we came out of the car was the smell, flying feathers, and clucking noise. Due to biosecurity, we could not enter the layer houses. Layers are brought to the houses at about 16 weeks of age, after they were raised in the pullet house about 500 yards away. Young hens are brought to the pullet house when they are only a day old. The temperature of the pullet hose is warm to make sure that chickens do not bunch together. At around 16 weeks, chickens are transferred to the layer houses. In these houses temperature is controlled with large fans that circulate the air. Light is also controlled, since the chicken brain is light activated. This means that hen will lay eggs only during daylight. A hen can lay one egg in a 24 hour period. According to Mr. the manager of this facility, on average 72% hens will lay an egg each day. This means that about 550,000 eggs will be processed every single day. Cleaning of the houses is one of the most important things to prevent diseases. Hens can die from many diseases, including common flu so it is important that strict rules about cleaning are followed. For example, if you visited a pullet house you have to take a shower before entering the layer house in order to prevent spread of diseases. The layer hen lays an egg which rolls to the automated belt leading to the egg processing facility, right next door. Here eggs are processed and shipped to the stores.
EGG PROCESSING STEP BY STEP: Have you ever thought about how does the egg you may be enjoying for your breakfast get to the store. We visited the egg processing facility of the Tampa Farm Service layer farm to find out.
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