Exergen Scanner D501-LN Helps “YELLOW BIRD” group turn their Award Winning Concept “NestBorn” from animal welfare into profit

“Yellow Bird” is a leading Belgian hatchery group, where the third generation is currently at the helm. In their hatcheries in Belgium (Belgabroed, Vervaeke-Belavi, L’Oeuf d’Or) and The Netherlands (van Hulst) about 180 million chicks – of various breeds – are born every year. They supply customers in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. They invented the innovative NestBorn-system which is leading to a silent revolution within their branch. More and more poultry farmers are switching to NestBorn providing a healthier and better life to chicks.

How the NestBorn system works?‍

NestBorn (www.nestborn.eu) is a revolutionary on-farm hatching concept with focus on broiler welfare and sustainability. Without need for specific installations or investments in the broiler house, pre-hatched eggs are gently placed in a natural litter bed. With the NestBorn approach, eggs are transported instead of day-old chicks. This new method increases animal welfare significantly and leads to healthier and more robust birds.

The NestBorn Monitoring Platform allows monitoring of the complete hatching process in the broiler house in real time and from a distance.

Why is accurate temperature measurement important?‍

Shell temperature of the eggs is essential to control as final development and hatching takes place between 36.1°C – 37.5°C (97°F - 100°F). If the egg is not in this temperature range, hatch will not be optimal. Based on the temperature measurements, the farmer can adapt temperature (and humidity) in the broiler house to ensure all eggs will hatch and that day-old chicks are of highest quality.

Why Exergen’s D501-LN microscanner?‍

Accuracy – accuracy – accuracy: combine that with easy and fast. ‍

Exergen’s D501-LN handheld certified infrared microscanner delivers industry’s best possible temperature measurement accuracy. This infrared instrument is certified with NIST-traceable accuracy on real surfaces of unknown emissivity, and are completely free of the contact, friction heating, time-based and heat syncing errors common in contact devices.

The D501-LN Series non-contact microscanners measure surface temperature in a fraction of a second (100 ms response time), while contact probes (thermocouples, RTD’s, thermistors, etc.) require several minutes to achieve equilibrium. The D501-LN microscanner is free of any emissivity errors, emissivity shift errors or background reflection errors. The device does not require any calibration or user adjustments, and has an interchangeability rate of ±1%, resolution of 0.1°C and unmatched repeatability of 0.1°C.

The NestBorn Monitoring Platform depends on internet connection and Bluetooth. If there is an instable connection and the farmer wants to be 100% sure of the temperature of the eggshell, he will walk into the broiler house and check the temperature of the eggshells also by hand. The temperature is of such importance that no risk can be taken in these three days of hatching. The scanner together with the NestBorn Monitoring Platform form a safe, secure and very reliable system.

Benefits achieved‍

• Less stress for the chicks and optimal chick welfare
• Chicks have immediately access to feed, water and light
• More robust and healthy chicks with less need for antibiotics
• Better technical performance and more profit for all stakeholders
• Very accessible on-farm hatching system