Our hen house is designed as a rearing house for pullets and has space for 2900 hens and a few roosters. Twice a year, one-day-old chicks are brought in and stay with us until they are 18 weeks old. We feed and look after the hens. In the next 5 months, the chicks develop into young laying hens and get used to the aviary, in which the laying nest is located, in which they will later lay their eggs.
In the first days of life, the chicks need high house temperatures and must be able to find food and water easily. Later, it is important that they learn and practise natural behaviours such as scratching, flying, jumping and rearing.
At the beginning, the animals are exclusively in the indoor stable and in the winter garden, which are littered with straw pellets and the farm's own straw. A good bedding with longitudinal straw additionally serves as an occupation for the animals. After 6 weeks, the pullets are let out into the "fox-proof" pasture.
Shortly before the hens start laying eggs, we sell them to various layer farms and to private individuals - so they will move from here to their new 'place of action'. We work together with the hatchery Wüthrich AG in Belp.
The henhouse is then thoroughly cleaned and prepared for the next chicks.
