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Efficiency of a Commercial Mechanical Chicken Catching System

Delaware Experimental Station, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716-2140

Correspondence: E. R. Benson, E-mail: ebenson{at}udel.edu

Mechanical poultry catching systems have been investigated for a number of years and are being adopted on the Delmarva Peninsula. For this study, a commercial mechanical catching system was observed on 11 occasions from January to July 2002. Initial results indicate it took an average of 174 s to complete a catching-unloading sequence with 50 s spent catching, 43 s spent unloading into the packing unit, and the remaining time spent maneuvering. Idle time contributed to inefficiency in mechanical catching. The average idle time due to truck delay was approximately 48 min per house, whereas the average idle time due to equipment delay was approximately 20 min per house. The average operational time to complete a house with 22,000 to 26,000 birds was 5 h, 17 min, yielding an effective harvesting rate of 4,200 to 5,000 birds per hour.

Key Words: live haul and mechanical catching