Egg Barn
Each hen in the Springhill poultry barn lays about 300- 320 eggs per year. 10,000 hens lay approximately 8800 eggs every day, which equals to about 3, 212,000 eggs a year. That’s a huge amount of Eggs. The Springhill colony egg industry has been in operation since Springhill was first built, about 40 years.
“A truck comes every year at the beginning of June with our new chickens!” said egg barn worker, Joseph. Then, most of the young people go down to the barn and unload them and put them in their cages. After that, the hens start laying small eggs. As the chickens grow, the eggs get bigger as well.
“Our flock size has stayed the same since the 80’s!” stated egg barn manager, Joe. Because of better genetics, we get more eggs per hen. These hens also eat less food. Therefore, even though the flock size has not changed,
our egg production has increased. If colony management decides to buy more quota, and then we could get more hens. The government of Manitoba implemented the quota system so not everyone in Manitoba could have egg-laying chickens. This keeps the total number of eggs in Manitoba down, so the eggs are worth more money. If you want more chickens, you’ll have to buy quota, and if the government thinks there are enough egg-laying chickens in the province, they wouldn’t sell you more quota.
Since the 80’s, many different Springhillers have worked at the chicken barn. Michael Hofer and Dave Hofer were working at the egg barn when Joe Hofer became boss in the 1960’s. And since then, all “buem” have taken their turn working in the poultry barn. Usually, the youngest “bua” works at the egg barn.
We used to have 2 egg barns, but we wrecked them both and built a new and much bigger one. Until the new barn was completed in 1994, we had to go all around the barn with a wagon to collect the eggs. The new barn was equipped with new triple decked cages, and automatic egg gatherers. “I was just getting good at my job with the wagon we used to gather eggs, but they soon finished building the new barn and I couldn’t do it anymore because of the new technology,” explained barn worker Joseph. “We also got triple deck cages, so we could store more hens than before. We got manure scrapers, instead of always using the bobcat to scrape the manure, and we got nipple drinkers instead of hard-cups that always leaked.” It’s easier to work in the new barn because of automatic feeding, and superior ventilation.
In the future, the egg barn might undergo some changes. We might heat it up more, and we might get more chickens. Plus we might get an electric stacker and better technology.
“I love to work with poultry!” declared egg barn manager, Joe.
“And I like it because it is something to do, a future for my children, and it provides the colony with fresh eggs!” states Joseph. “However, I dislike the dust and the smell, having to work on Sundays, and washing it down once a year!”
“Some of the challenges are keeping the birds healthy, and keeping good production.” said egg barn manager Joe. “And some other challenges are biosecurity, food safety program, and trying to do better all the time.”
And that’s all about the Springhill poultry barn. I hope you learned something about our poultry barn.
Caleb Wollmann
