These pages offer an outline of what happens at the hatchery. If you require further, or technical information on hatchery equipment try, www.petersime.com

When the eggs have been collected from the farms, they are held again in a control room.

Here the temperature is held at 60 C and the humidity is at 70-75 rh, keeping the eggs in as near perfect condition as possible. 

They are then transferred on to special trolleys with trays that are capable of tipping from side to side.

The tipping motion is done automatically during the 18 days that the eggs are in the incubator. This ensures the eggs receive an even temperature during the incubation period.

In nature the mother hen would roll the eggs under herself whilst she was sitting on them to achieve this effect.

The coloured tabs that you can see, indicate to the operator the day the eggs were placed in the incubator.

The operator will not change all the eggs at once, because it would change the temperature in the incubator, which must be maintained at a 37.5 C. To achieve this the eggs trays are removed and replaced in stages, i.e, blue one day, pink the next etc.

Fact:- The public are being misled, PACKED IN BRITAIN is totally different to a fresh British chicken. In reality this produce will almost certainly have been brought in from abroad and its origin is often hard to detect.