Our partners at Bell & Evans pride themselves on investing in animal welfare. Owner, Scott Sechler has been in the chicken industry his whole life, and he and his team bring a wealth of passion and expertise to their operations in Pennsylvania.
Scott and his team regularly travel the globe in search of the latest technology. In 2011, Bell & Evans launched slow induction anesthesia (SIA), dramatically reducing animal stress. Last week, G.A.P. hit the road to visit their new state-of-the-art further processing facility in Lebanon County, PA, and now that the plant is up and running, we asked them what projects were next on their list.
The most exciting project they told us about was their plan to open a revolutionary new hatchery later this year in Fredericksburg, PA. The new hatchery will be completed in collaboration with Hatchtech and Viscon of the Netherlands, and will be the first of its kind in the US. The new hatchery will provide fresh food, water, and air to chicks as soon as they hatch; and starting on day one, improvements in incubation, brooding, and transport technology will improve chick immunity, development, and overall health. Similar systems implemented in Europe and Canada has proved to provide even more benefits to animal welfare than was expected. Watch the video below to learn more about Time Lapse Hatching!
Bell & Evans has been a great partner with Global Animal Partnership and the 5-Step® Animal Welfare Rating Program. We look forward to see what other innovative projects Bell & Evans will be introducing in the years to come!
