The Devonshire Red Chicken
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Hatchery
The hatchery near Kentisbeare has been producing chicks for West Country poultry farmers for almost 50 years.
The hatchery is now owned and run by PD Hook Ltd., the agricultural partner of 2 Sisters Food Group, and is where all the chicks needed for 2 Sisters' chicken production in the West Country are hatched - around 720,000 per week.
The hatchery is supplied with fertilized Cobb (traditional meat breed for standard rearing) and Devonshire Red (our own slow growing breed for the specialist rearing systems) eggs by eight dedicated brooder farms. One of these is organic, producing 25-30 per cent of the chicks needed to supply the company's organic farms - the highest rate of any poultry producer in the UK.
The hatchery has its own fleet of vehicles with state-of-the-art temperature control systems on board, to ensure fertilized eggs are transported from the brooder farms at exactly the right temperature for maximum hatchability.
A major expansion and refit in 1997 saw the hatchery installed with the latest fully automated setting equipment, which has helped it achieve the highest percentage of healthy chicks hatched in the UK. They're delivered by the hatchery to their respective farms as one day-old chicks.
The hatchery is managed by Mike Mitchell who has worked there since 1961.
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