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Potters Poultry is making an impact globally with its innovative aviary rearing system for laying birds and high welfare poultry house equipment. Hannah Noble finds out more. 

Established in the 1930s by William Potter and later developed by his sons, Ron an Ken, Potters Poultry is now in the hands of the third generation of the family, brother and sister team, Justin and Olivia. 

Justin says: "Our father reared pullets but the equipment was not available on a commercial scale, so he started making his own cages from wood and wire which led to him making them for other people."

The business now produces its own poultry house equipment in its factory in Rugby, Warwickshire, and distributes all across the UK where their open aviary layer system is the best seller. 

He adds: "We provide equipment for the laying industry with a heavy focus on health and safety and ease of management. We are very different to others on the market in that our systems can be managed from the ground which we think is very important if you are employing staff."

Over the last 10-12 years the business has expanded its supply of equipment overseas into countries such as Spain, France, the Philippines and even China. 

But, aside from the UK, the business' biggest market is the USA where Potters Poultry sells equipment from its Iowa-based office and warehouse. As well as this, the company has been rearing pullets from its farms in Minnesota and Missouri for the last four years.

In the UK, the egg market is growing, in particular the demand for free-range.

Justin says: "Eggs are now seen as a healthy, safe, cheap and high welfare source of protein."

Potters Poultry owns a number of family farms and employs several contract rearers around the country rearing about two million birds in total each year for the laying industry. With the aim of expanding over the coming years to include more contract rearing units. 

Poultry units

About 95 per cent of new free-range poultry units being built are equipped with aviary laying systems, which are tiered platforms including all feeding, watering, perching and laying requirements. This system requires birds to be highly trained to perform well, so in 2015 Potters Poultry installed its first aviary-style rearing unit.

Olivia says: "We strongly believe any birds going into an aviary laying system should be aviary reared.

"You can get great results from our other systems, but the results we see by rearing on an aviary system are even better."

When the family installed their first aviary rearing system they thought the benefits would solely be seen by their customers but they have seen several benefits during the rearing process too including lower mortality, improved liveweight gain and overall evenness.

Evenness is judged on the percentage of birds which lie within 10 per cent of the target weight. 

Olivia says: "In the aviary system, by nine weeks old we are always a week ahead of the body weight target and see over 90 per cent evenness by the same age. That is almost unheard of in standard multi-tier units."

The minimum aim is to achieve the breed target for growth and Olivia says ideally they want the body weight to be four to five days ahead of this target. This means when the birds are moved to the laying units at 16 weeks old and are expected to lose up to 8-10 per cent of their body weight, they remain ahead of target. 

She says: "Layer birds are the equivalent of lean racing machines. You do not want a big, heavy, fat bird you are looking for good frame and good body weight, consistently achieving target throughout rear."

Stress can cause the developing eggs to become second quality, therefore it is also important that the pullets are calm and happy with human contact. Olivia says mobility is especially important for birds living in an aviary laying system to allow them easy access to the different levels. 

"In other sheds you are disturbing the birds from eating and drinking when you walk through but with the aviary system the feed and water is up on the system. 

"The birds are able to eat, drink, perch or rest. There is a lot more dust bathing which happens in these houses, which you can see from the litter quality." 

Chicks

When the chicks first enter the rearing unit at one-day-old they are contained in modules. The family worked closely with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' Freedom Foods team on this stage of the rear and research they carried out concluded the modules had a positive effect on the chicks' welfare.

"Every individual flock is different in how it behaves. We have had some chicks happily using the system and up on the top at 17 days of age and then the next flock that might not come up until four to five weeks," says Olivia. 

"We have to adapt each rear, but we are happy that by two weeks old we are able to gradually start releasing the chicks."

When the chicks are young they are provided with ramps to help them to get back up onto the system for feed, water and to roost. However, Olivia says by three weeks old they will easily be hopping from the floor to perch and onto the system.

Lighting system

A coloured lighting system is used in the rearing shed to train the pullets to go up onto the aviary at night to rest.

She says: "The main house lighting is on for about 10 hours per day, for example from 7am to 5pm. The red light comes on at 4pm signalling bedtime, the birds will then start to draw up onto the system. 

"At about 4.45pm the house lights go off then the lights under each layer of the aviary system go off 15 to 20 minutes apart in sequence."

The poultry unit staff then come into the sheds at night with head torches to check how many birds are still on the floor and lift any remaining birds onto the system. This continues for the first four or five nights until they are all trained and every bird is sleeping on the aviary.  

Vaccination of the young birds is a large part of the rearing process and vaccines are used to safeguard human health against infection with bacteria such as salmonella and e.coli as well as to protect the health of the birds from diseases such as mycoplasma and infectious bronchitis. 

Because of the nature of a free-range laying unit there is the possibility of the flock coming into contact with wild birds which is also a threat to their health. In areas of dense poultry production the risk can also come from disease passed from other flocks of birds in a close proximity. 

Olivia says: "If our customers have got sheep or pigs it is likely their vet will advise them to have their flock vaccinated against erysipelas. If we need to administer this vaccine it means every single bird will need to be picked up and vaccinated at 12 weeks and again at loading."

Farm facts

• A mortality rate of about 0.5 per cent is achieved on the aviary rearing system
• Birds are given footballs, pecker blocks and other types of enrichment to reduce pecking once in the laying unit
• When chicks first enter the rearing unit, the temperature is maintained at 34degC. This is brought down to 20degC by four to five weeks old