THE NETHERLANDS - October 2008 saw the completion of one of the largest aviary houses in Europe at the farm of the Claessens family at Heide-Venray in the Netherlands.

The two-storey house, holding some 95,000 commercial layers, measures 125 x 24 metres and was built 1.3 metres below ground level. The house is equipped with the RED-L system, each storey having a two-porch, six-belt unit with three rows of nests; one more than is required by KAT regulations.

The extra nesting space ensures the birds have no difficulty in finding a nest and has meant that floor eggs are kept to a minimum at just 0.1 per cent. At 32 weeks of age, production was still exceeding 96 per cent when Vencomatic.net visited the unit to inspect the unit and check performance of the flocks.

House description

An egg packing room was built at the front of the house incorporating a Prinzen egg packer and Prinzen pallet loader. At the rear of the house, a manure storage area was incorporated with a manure belt system to spread manure evenly throughout the storage area.

The building is fitted with three climate units supplied by Agro Supply. The units provide preheated fresh air within the house which together with aeration tubes alongside the manure belts of the RED-L ensures both drying of the manure and a perfect house climate with fresh air at bird level.