Bird Health, Care, and Handling

Driven by a desire to do our best for our hens, Herbruck’s has a comprehensive, dynamic program for ensuring healthy, contented birds. This program includes:

• Breeder stock selection. Our expert staff carefully selects breeds for their egg quality, productivity, vitality, and disease resistance. By holding partial ownership in a hatchery, we maintain close control over the breeds and strains of hens. All of our hens are National Poultry Improvement Plan verified, ensuring they arrive salmonella free from our breeder.
  
  
• Vaccination. All Herbruck hens are vaccinated against the salmonella bacteria and other diseases, both as pullets and as mature hens. We make disease prevention a priority to ensure the health of the birds and the food safety of our products. (Note that our hens are never treated with hormones and receive antibiotics only when prescribed by a veterinarian.)
  
  
• Feeding. We grow and purchase nutritious feed ingredients, including corn, soybeans, kelp, vitamins, and minerals. Each flock receives a specialized, highly nutritious formula. All birds also have ready access to clean drinking water.
  
  
• Exceptional cleanliness. We go to great lengths to ensure a clean environment for our hens, both inside and outside the henhouse. Our comprehensive approach includes:
  • Facilities designed and built for easy cleaning
  • Integrated rodent barriers
  • A meticulous interior cleaning regimen
  • Foot baths at every doorway to disinfect the soles of footwear
  • Street sweeping vehicles that clean the outside pavement
    
    
• Lighting and ventilation. All henhouses have fresh, clean air that’s changed every two minutes or less. They also have computerized lighting systems designed to mimic the daylight of springtime, which stimulates birds to lay eggs.
  
  
• Technology. Herbruck’s uses advanced technology – much of it developed in-house and now marketed worldwide – to help us maintain safe, comfortable, healthy environments for our laying hens. Computerized control systems help our caretakers monitor and control factors such as:
  • Feed and water consumed
  • Air temperature, quality, and movement
  • Egg production levels and bird health
  • Conveyors and other equipment
    
    
• Human interaction. Another unique aspect of how we care for our birds is the amount of time employees spend tending to them each day. Pullets (hens from one day to 20 weeks of age) are conscientiously reared by highly trained staff at our company-owned facility. Once moved to our laying houses, hens continue to receive frequent attention from people who are invested in their well-being. This level of human interaction keeps our birds calm, comfortable, and productive.
  
  
• Proper handling at all stages of life. From the time they hatch to the time they leave our care, Herbruck hens receive humane, respectful treatment.

As a family business, we take seriously the culture of respect that our grandparents established. It’s not about the birds serving our needs; it’s about us serving the birds.