In the 1990‘s Alfons Lürwer from Billerbeck, Germany, started his production of barn eggs with 2,000 laying hens. Today, the farm houses more than 90,000 laying hens thanks to his son Benedikt who added a substantial amount to the production capacity when he joined the family enterprise.
Barn egg production in a well-designed poultry poultry house
The result is a poultry house with a rather non-traditional layout: the 47,000 laying hens with which Benedict almost doubled his father’s stock, are housed on two levels. When looking for poultry equipment for barn egg production with an optimal utilisation ratio of housing space, Benedikt Lürwer opted for Big Dutchman ’s NATURA70.
Customised poultry equipment
A view into the aviary shows that the young farmer had a hand not only in designing the poultry house itself but also in the installed poultry equipment. The customized NATURA70 installation is, for example, equipped with a longitudinal egg belt of 50 cm width instead of the standard 35 cm width. Benedikt Lürwer also requested the installation of an additional egg belt inside the aviary for barn egg production – no problem for the renowned poultry equipment supplier from Vechta. Now, mislaid eggs can be collected easily by the elevator which saves the farm manager valuable working time.
Barn egg production with reduced management requirements
In general, the concept of NATURA70 is based on the idea of reducing management requirements in poultry equipment and increasing the production reliability. Pullets have an optimal start into the laying period which is also demonstrated by the low share of mislaid floor eggs. Another advantage is that the birds do not fly at eye level – which allows the farm staff to inspect the laying stock without problems, easily and comfortably. Further amenities of the poultry equipment include the small, well-manageable group sizes which are created by cross partitions that are installed every 2.41 metres.