Poultry production: all you need to know

The production process of broilers starts with the breeding organisations, they breed and develop different broiler breeds. The breeding organisations supply one-day-old chicks to the rearing companies, who raise these chicks to adult parent stock, which are transported to the breeder farms. The breeders produce hatching eggs for the hatcheries, which hatch them to produce chicks for the broiler farms.

The modern broiler farms produce chicks ready for slaughter in 5.5 to 6 weeks. These are slaughtered by the slaughterhouse and further processed into chicken products, which are bought by the consumer in the supermarket. In the case of slow-growing broilers, which are used for special market segments, the daily growth is lower and it takes up to 9 weeks before the chicks are ready for slaughter.

In traditional production systems, the chicks are hatched in a hatchery and are then transported to the broiler farms. In addition, new techniques are available where pre-incubated eggs are transported to the broiler farm instead of day-old chicks, so the eggs hatch on the broiler farm. For this purpose, systems like the Patio, a multi-tier housing system, and the X-Treck for a floor house/ deep litter house have been developed. With these systems, the hatching eggs are placed in the house during the last 3 days of the incubation process, which is called ‘on-farm hatching’.