Vanbet Hatchery, located in Comuna Banca in northeast Romania, is one of the largest poultry businesses in the country. In addition to its broiler chicken production, the company has found a unique solution to quail incubation by using the single-stage Petersime AirStreamerPlus™ incubator. With a strong focus on continuous development, Vanbet plans a further expansion of its hatchery in 2020.
Project info
Vanbet Hatchery continues to invest in its growth
As one of the largest Romanian companies in the poultry sector, Vanbet occupies multiple facilities, from parent farms for broilers over layer farms for shell eggs to a slaughterhouse and meat processing plant. The owner has been investing in the company’s continuous development, for instance by choosing Petersime’s top-performing incubators and hatchery equipment, not only to equip its broiler hatchery, but also for quail egg incubation.
About 12 years ago, Vanbet Hatchery started producing day-old chicks at a setting capacity of 6 million eggs per year. Soon after seeing the benefits of single-stage incubation technologies, the company decided to gradually increase its capacity. A new, larger hatchery building was constructed to create more space for the installation of additional incubators while also providing an improved location for the existing equipment. Currently operating at a combined capacity of 26 single-stage BioStreamer™, BioStreamer™ High Density and AirStreamerPlus™ incubators, Vanbet Hatchery already plans a further expansion in collaboration with Petersime in 2020.
Vanbet Hatchery has put its trust in Petersime for years, thanks to our advanced technologies and expert advice. This is reflected in the company’s hatchability rates for the viable eggs, which often reach over 90% of high-quality day-old chicks.
In addition to the long-term collaboration, Vanbet has also devoted a lot of attention to using Petersime’s incubators to their full potential – after all, knowledge is power! The company has its own team of skilled employees who are thoroughly trained to perform maintenance on the machines, know when to order spare parts, how to adapt the incubation programmes according to different embryo requirements and much more. Moreover, Vanbet’s hatchery manager, Mrs Carmen Paraschiv, has attended several training sessions at Petersime to expand her expertise of topics such as incubation technologies, egg management, chick quality and operational maintenance.
Vanbet’s creative approach to incubating quail eggs
Vanbet originally produced broiler chickens only, yet a few years ago, a trial was set up to introduce the production of quails into the hatchery. Despite the small quail market size and the limited information available, the company has found a unique opportunity in incubating quails by using the same incubation profile as for chickens. What’s more, Vanbet discovered that Petersime’s chicken egg setter trays can also be used for quail eggs.
“The process of quail egg incubation is different than broiler eggs. The complete incubation time for quails is only 17 days, depending on the breed,” Mrs Paraschiv explains. “At Vanbet Hatchery, we successfully use the single-stage AirStreamerPlus™ 12S setter for a combination of chicken and quail production. A creative and flexible solution we found for the egg placement is to turn the Petersime setter tray upside down. That way, we can fit 126 quail eggs per tray.”
Vanbet’s approach to incubating quail eggs has often resulted in positive results near to 90% hatchability rates. Mrs Paraschiv elaborates: “Based on our previous experience with chicken eggs, the air parameters of the AirStreamerPlus™ serve as a good starting profile for quails and are programmed accordingly. Although different species, the incubation fundamentals are similar, which is why the procedures we have used for chickens are also applicable to quails. One adaptation was needed to meet all requirements of quail egg incubation: We have to use the spraying system throughout the entire hatching program.” Due to the low egg volume in relation to air volume in the hatcher, the natural humidity is reduced. Vanbet’s solution to spray in fact activates increased humidity levels during hatching and, therefore, facilitates the process.
The collaboration between Vanbet Hatchery and Petersime is a prime example of the continuous two-way exchange of new ideas and information, allowing both customer and Petersime to learn and evolve.
Interesting topics
