"Think like a chicken"

United States - For poultry farmers, transitioning from cage to cage-free systems can be a significant change. What is involved? How will bird management be affected? Explore Junctions Farm's journey here and gain insights from their experiences. After over 50 years in the traditional cage market, Junction Farm has transitioned to cage-free barns. They have equipped their laying farm with 100,000 birds with the Bolegg Gallery, ECO Units, Speedpack, and Meggsius systems. 

Craig and Dan are telling : ‘Working with cage birds all our lives it is very humbling, making the switch to cage free. It is a whole new ball game an you’ve got completely retrain what you knew. They tell us to think like a chicken. Well that’s hard to do. But the chicken will tell you what they are and aren’t comfortable with. We just have to learn their language.” By selecting the Bollegg Gallery, they have opted for both simplicity and longevity. This system minimizes the need for frequent climbing, ensuring good visibility and easy maintenance. 

Climate
With the ECO Units they keep winter ventilation well under control, with increasing temperatures. Dan explains: “We felt we could condition that air and have a better environment than what we had in previous years. We have a lot of flexibility in what we can do with that system.

Egg handling
As for quality, they have the Meggsius monitoring system through which they know how many eggs coming of each row upstairs and, each row downstairs and so they can keep track of that. It's all camera logged and so they know where the eggs are coming from. And if there is a problem with a pile up or something like that, they know immediately.

With the Speedpack from Prinzen they have had experience for years also in the cage barns these were used. Craig: “The speedpacks are easy to manage, they worked pretty good and then it was just a no-brainer to choose the Prinzen on our remodel and expansion. Egg quality is good, very few dirts, it seems to handle the eggs very gently“

Junction farm made the switch to cage free together with the support of Vencomatic Group. Craig: Overall experience has been very pleasant. They want us to succeed, which is fantastic. That’s exactly what you want creating partnership together.”