LAYER FARM

1. PULLET HOUSE Chicks are brought to the pullet house when they are only a day old. They are kept warm and fed for about 16 weeks when they start laying eggs.	2. LAYER HOUSE Adult hens live in clean and airconditoned layer houses. Each hen can lay an egg once in 24 hours. On this farm there are 800,000 hens and 72% lay an egg each day. This means around 550,000 eggs each day.	3. AUTOMATED BELT Hens lay eggs on the slanted belt. The belt is automated and it moves eggs from the layer house into the egg processing plant.
4. CLEANING Eggs are cleaned with water to remove droppings, soil and other dirt that may have bacteria or virus. Water has to be room temperature and the USDA person checks the temperature.	5. DRYING After the eggs are washed, they are blow dried.	6. CHECK After the eggs are clean, a worker checks them again. She touches any egg that is cracked or dirty with a computerized wand. The computer now can recognize these eggs and send them for another cleaning or discard them.
7.SORTING After computer gets rid of unclean and broken eggs, eggs are sorted by size automatically. Did you know that the youngest hens lay the smallest eggs, and the oldest hens lay the largest eggs?	8. PACKING Next, eggs are automatically sorted and packed into egg packages just like the ones you can find in the grocery stores.	9. WRAP and CHECK Eggs are also sorted and wrapped by workers. USDA grader works in every egg processing plant. They come and randomly check eggs to make sure they are good quality.
10. DATE Each package is stamped with date and information about when and where was the egg processed. This way if something is wrong with an egg, it's easy to find out where it came from to solve the problem.	11. SEND DOWN THE BELT Packaged, checked and dated eggs are sent down the automated belt to be prepared for shipping.	12. PLACE IN STACKS Eggs are then wrapped and stacked. They are ready to be shipped.
13. STORE IN FREEZER Eggs are stored in the freezer set at 45 degrees F. They are labeled so that the people who load them know where they will be shipped.	14. LOAD TO TRUCKS Eggs are loaded to big trucks. These trucks take eggs to stores or warehouses all over the USA.	15.BUY THE EGGS We buy packaged eggs from the store. Make sure that there are no cracked eggs and check the date to make sure your eggs are fresh.
16. STORE IN REFRIGERATOR Store your eggs in the refrigerator to make sure they stay fresh and good to eat.	17. COOK Eggs can be used for many different dishes. Make sure to follow safe handling procedures.	18. ENJOY Eat your food an enjoy. Try our great crepe recipe!