Egg Production Facility
Clay Crane
Why Egg Production?
Kansas is an agriculture state, we’ve
covered the flour production
Great economic impact on the community
Actually been through a facility
Surprising how highly atomized the
industry has become
Czech quality…..disturbing?
Changing Industry
Prior to WWII most egg
producing facilities were
‘free run’ with flock sizes
less than 400 hens.
Now the birds are kept in
cages which has allowed
for more atomization and
larger flock sizes. Some
facilities now can house
as many as 2.5 million
hens. Genetics play a
very large role now as
hens can be designed to
be layers with little meat
and a high resistance to
disease.
Pullets (chicks)
Kept in separate houses from the layers
Extremely tight bio-security to prevent disease
contamination
Very rigid with vaccinations
Manipulating the amount of light received allows
the maturing of the bird’s frame, however delays
sexual maturity
After 17 weeks they are moved to the laying
houses, 18th week the pullets become layers
Layers
Diet changes- more calcium to promote sexual maturity
and ensure good shell quality

NO hormones are used in the U.S.
Start increasing light 15 minutes/day (17hrs max)

Tricks them into thinking it’s spring time
Start laying eggs after 20-30 weeks
Overall a facility will have about 80-90% productivity
across the board
Most facilities do molt to keep costs down, but I don’t
have details on that…..
After 110 weeks the hens are sold for processing
In the Laying House
Everything is computer controlled from a
‘command center’

Light, temperature, humidity, air circulation,
belt speeds, feed augers
Several back up generators to ensure the
fans and the motors don’t stop
There appear to be endless columns of
chickens as far as the eye can see
There’s 6 hens/cage
Water and food are
easily available
The cage floor has a
10 deg. slant
The small conveyers
flow to a main
conveyer that runs
perpendicular to all
houses
Egg Preparation
1. Pre-wash

Loosens any materials on the egg
2. Two washers spraying hot water at high
pressure while brushes go over eggs
3. Eggs dried under blowers
4. Mineral oil applied

Must be done because the washing removes
the natural cuticle that prevents bacteria from
entering the egg
Egg Processing cont’d
5. Dirt detector


A set of cameras calibrated to a certain shade of color
(white)
Anything else and the egg is redirected on a conveyer
back to the washers
6. Crack detector



Sonar devise measuring sound vibrations
Cracks give off a funny vibration
If cracked, the eggs go to a “breaking plant” where
they will be pasteurized and dried and sold as
ingredients to bakeries and such
Egg Processing cont’d
7. Weighing

The moment the egg is weighed, the machine knows
exactly where the egg is and what packer it should go
to
8. Packers


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12 packers in total, most of which are for large eggs
The machine drops the proper egg into the proper
packer
Then placed in carton, date stamped and packed into
boxes
Efficiency
Have their own mill to
make proper mix
Wastes and recycled

Sold to farmers as
fertilizer
Sources
www.aeb.org/eii/production.html
http:ag.ansc.prudue.edu/poultry/publication/com
megg/inex.htm
Ryan A. Meunier and Dr. Mickey A. Latour
Todd Walters, Complex manager, Cal-Maine
Foods, INC.