Eggs from farm to table

Eggs from farm to table

1. Eggs from production are brought into the packing/storage facility. Eggs can be brought in by hand or by conveyor belt. In intensive egg production, the birds lay eggs that roll out of the cage onto conveyor belts, which transport the eggs directly to the packing/storage facilities.

   • Here eggs are stored temporarily before they are moved to the candling room
     • Eggs are brought into the candling room, where candlers verify the interior and external quality of eggs. The small squares (see Figure 11, No. 3) represent candling benches. The candling machine in Photograph 24 is used in fully mechanized or semi-mechanized systems, where the eggs are brought onto the candling machine by a conveyor belt
       • After candling, eggs are transported by conveyor belts to the cleaning/weighing room. Here eggs are cleaned with abrasives, where possible, and sorted by weight. Usually the size indicates which category eggs should fall into - small, medium or large. This can be done by hand; however, automated weighing machinery is available.
         • After weighing, the eggs are taken to the packaging area. Packaging can be done either by hand (see Photograph 25) or automatically by machinery. As seen in Photograph 26 the eggs arrive at machine No. 1. If we look at Photograph 27, there are three weighing machines numbered one to three. Each machine is set to pack only predetermined egg weights. For example, machine No.1 (see Photograph 26) packs only 60-gram eggs. If the eggs are below that weight, they will be conveyed to machine No. 2 (see Photograph 28). The eggs are then packed automatically.