Perdue Farms adopts on farm chick hatching technology

With the approach, chicks are given immediate access to food and water.

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NestBorn

Perdue Farms will incorporate the NestBorn approach of hatching day-old chicks in broiler barns following successful tests of the technology in 2023.

 “In our mission to responsibly raise animals for food, we always are looking for continuous improvement of animal welfare,” said Bruce Stewart Brown, chief science officer for Perdue Farms.

 “A few years ago, we started to investigate the feasibility and potential benefit of on-farm hatching in our operations. We started taking pre-incubated eggs to broiler barns, instead of using the hatcher. We concluded that NestBorn is an additional asset for our broiler operations that will help further our efforts around the highest animal care and in our commitment to no antibiotics ever.”

The 2023 test was the first NestBorn installation in the U.S.

How NestBorn works

According to a presentation at the 2023 Poultry Tech Summit, having chicks hatch on the farm with immediate access to food and water could reduce stress and result in better broiler performance.

At a traditional hatchery, eggs undergo 18 days of incubation and they stay at the hatchery for an additional three days after hatching before the chicks are moved to the farm.

However, with NestBorn on-farm hatching, pre-incubated eggs are shipped to a broiler farm, where they are hatched directly on the floor. This can occur either by a robot transferring the eggs from flats onto the litter or by placing the eggs on degradable pulp trays directly onto the floor of the farm. Either way, chicks hatched on-farm receive uninterrupted early access to feed and water and an elimination of handling and transport stressors.

Attend the 2025 Poultry Tech Summit

The Poultry Tech Summit will return as an in-person event on November 3-5, 2025, at the Atlanta Airport Marriott in Atlanta, Georgia. The Poultry Tech Summit brings together inventors, researchers, entrepreneurs, poultry industry professionals and established technology providers to discuss challenges and solutions for all aspects of the poultry supply chain.

 The event focuses on the transition of innovative technologies from researchers and entrepreneurs into commercial applications for the benefit of the poultry industry.

NEW in 2025, Poultry Tech Summit will be held in collaboration with the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry and Eggs (US-RSPE) annual meeting held November 5-6, 2025.

The Poultry Tech Summit Call for Innovation will open in February, while registration for the event opens in June. For more information, go to www.poultrytechsummit.com.

 

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