I got to relive some childhood memories gathering eggs in Henry’s chicken house.
Although things have improved dramatically since then.
First, the chickens aren’t in cages.
So awesome.
They even get to go outside when the weather is good.
Second, you don’t go into the chicken house to gather the eggs.
They come right to you on a conveyor belt.
Think about that for a second.
How do you get chickens that aren’t in cages to lay eggs on a conveyor belt for your gathering convenience?
No, these aren’t highly trained hens.
Modern chicken farmers like Henry have studied the natural behaviors of chickens and created a simulated nest over a conveyor belt.
In the morning, the nest opens up and the chickens naturally go into the relatively dark and cozy nest to lay their eggs.
Then when laying time is up, they get pushed out of the nest so they don’t poop all over it the rest of the day.
Brilliant!
In comparison, my egg gathering days looked a whole lot like they did for Napoleon Dynamite.
Henry’s chickens are laying at about 94% per day right now, and they’re just warming up.
That’s around 6,000 eggs to crate up every day.
Henry says there are a couple of roosters hiding out in the crowd of hens.
They surely know the meaning of the word hen-pecked.
We might try to find them some evening.
-D
