The growing demand for poultry meat continues to push up the average capacity of hatcheries, creating the need for bigger buildings and more incubators to allow for the necessary output. For most companies, this implies a rise in costs. But what if there was another way? Petersime’s X-Streamer™ High Density (HD) incubator, which has been specially designed and engineered for more capacity, helps companies build new hatcheries which can achieve their total desired hatchery capacity with fewer machines and a smaller footprint.
Why is it so hard to increase egg density?
Everybody wants to do more with less. Unfortunately, that is not always possible, especially when it comes to increasing egg density in incubators. The fact of the matter is you can’t simply place more eggs in standard setters and hatchers, and expect them to perform to the same level when the incubators themselves have not fundamentally changed. Here is why.
When a larger number of eggs are placed in a non-adapted incubator, issues will arise from the very start. The heating system will not assure a short heat-up time for the higher egg mass. The trolleys and turning system will suffer under the heavier egg weight. The second half of the incubation cycle becomes even more problematic, as the embryos are exothermic and produce a high heat load at this stage. Stronger cooling, extra air mixing and more ventilation in the machine are required (keeping a 130,000-egg incubator at just the right eggshell temperature is no easy feat, especially when it has been designed for significantly fewer eggs). But that is where Petersime’s solution makes all the difference.
Unique engineering
At Petersime, we rethought the entire engineering of our standard incubators, offering a complete service and operational structure to help customers deal with extra egg density. The X-Streamer™ High Density (HD) incubator has been specially designed and engineered to house 12% more eggs, while keeping the same footprint and delivering the same high level of healthy chicks after hatch compared to a standard X-Streamer™. The machine is future-proof as its capacity was increased more than actually necessary to cope with the 12% more eggs: It can deal with even higher heat production meaning it has a built-in buffer to meet the future demands of higher heat production flocks and bigger eggs.
This is what makes Petersime’s X-Streamer™ HD unique:
- The honeycomb-structured 84HD setter tray can hold 12% more eggs for the same machine size.
- As the additional egg load requires higher cooling capacity for the higher egg mass, Petersime has raised the cooling capacity to perfectly handle the 12% higher heat production in the machine.
- The special heating elements ensure the same short preheating and warm-up times as a standard X-Streamer™, even though the egg mass is higher.
- To guarantee a perfect airflow, a fifth blade was added to the pulsator and the air outlet size was increased significantly to provide better ventilation. This ensures the right rate of air movement and keeps a uniform temperature bandwidth throughout the incubator cabinet, regardless of the extra egg density.
- Dedicated incubation profiles were created for the X-Streamer™ HD to accommodate for the extra egg density requirements.
- Other changes include a stronger tray turning system and more robust trolleys to handle the extra weight.
Lower investment cost per egg
Thanks to its unique engineering, Petersime’s X-Streamer™ High Density (HD) solution enables companies who are on the verge of starting a new hatchery project to lower the investment cost per egg while boosting the output of healthy chicks, as the total desired hatchery capacity can be achieved with fewer machines and a smaller footprint. Furthermore, the innovated design guarantees the same results in terms of hatchability, chick uniformity and post-hatch performance as the standard X-Streamer™, proving that it is indeed possible to increase egg density per square metre and still achieve the best hatchery rates for healthy young chicks.
Finally, even though the egg density is higher, the amount of energy consumed per egg is the same compared to standard machines thanks to improvements including higher cooling and heating capacity.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you want to discover what X-Streamer™ HD can do for your business.
Ives Vanstechelman graduated as a Master of Science in Bioscience Engineering. In his capacity as Product Specialist at Petersime, Ives uses customer and market insights to help develop new innovations. Moreover, he continuously streamlines the information flow between R&D, Sales and Marketing, and is in charge of managing the full life cycle of Petersime’s product portfolios ‘Incubators’ and ‘Hatchery equipment’.
