5 misconceptions about the robotization of poultry houses

As in many sectors, robotics has been appearing in poultry farming for a few years. A daily assistant, the poultry robot allows breeders to save time and work in better conditions.

1. The poultry robot is bad for poultry.

At a time when animal welfare takes center stage, perhaps you are wondering about the reaction of animals to a poultry robot. This rotating in the building to move the poultry, it is legitimate to wonder about its impact. Is there a risk of injury to animals? Are hens or turkeys exposed to additional stress?

In both cases, the answer is no! Poultry robots are designed to adapt to their environment and the type of farming. It is therefore sufficient to make some adjustments for the detection and stimulation of the animals. Once these precautions have been taken, your chickens or turkeys are in no danger. On the contrary, feedback from breeders shows that the robot helps to reduce behaviors such as biting. In practice, the robot comes to enrich the environment: as it is a source of distraction, the poultry have an occupation, move, even follow it. The robot is therefore all good when it comes to animal health. Not only does he play the role of sports coach by ensuring that the animals stay in good physical shape, but he helps to reduce stress and aggressiveness.

This phenomenon was observed, for example, by one of your poultry farmers, breeder of breeding turkeys in Finistère. He has observed a decrease in nervousness in his animals, which is of interest at the time of artificial inseminations (AI).

“We noticed this when the robot was used on half of the chicken coop. The turkeys that had the robot did not react the same way as the others, they were calmer during the AI. I could add that an animal that is active will be in better shape, will not brood and this will inevitably impact the fertility and fecundity rate which are very important criteria in our profession. »

2. The poultry robot is a gadget!

Today, could you do without your automatic nests? In the same way that this equipment imposed itself ten years ago, the poultry robot is on the way to becoming an essential equipment. Even if it does not completely eliminate the need to pass through your building, it provides real benefits, which have been measured.

- Lower spawning rate on the ground and increased productivity:

By disturbing the poultry, the robot encourages them to go and lay eggs in the nest. This results in fewer downgraded eggs and a higher yield. While the results vary depending on the strains and the use that each breeder makes of the robot, they are still significant. One of our breeding hen breeders (53), was thus able to reduce his laying rate on the ground from 18 to 3% in two weeks, on a 28-week-old batch while passing twice in his breeding to move the hens.

- Better fertility:

According to a study conducted by Hubbard, a world reference in the selection of broiler poultry, the use of the robot for two consecutive weeks increases ticking activity by 30%, with an improving effect of up to 5 points in the fertility rate. .

- Time saving :

Fewer eggs on the ground means less time spent collecting. Here too, the figures vary according to the characteristics of the farm, but it is certain that the robot makes it possible to space out the passages in the building and to find time for other activities on the farm. According to statistics conducted by the Octopus teams based on user feedback, the time saved per day is around 75/90 minutes in breeding hens, 90/120 minutes per day in breeding turkeys and 45 minutes in laying hens.

3. Technology is bound to be complicated.

Technology does not always rhyme with complexity! In reality, using a poultry robot is very simple. In the case of the T-Moov, no software or hardware installation is necessary. It can therefore be started as soon as it is received.

Everything has then been thought out so that operation is easy. All you have to do is press a button to start the robot and make the settings of your choice from your smartphone. With good autonomy, the robot circulates in your building without needing your intervention for up to 10 hours. It is equipped with a battery, which is powered by a charger to be connected to the mains.

Nothing very complicated then! You also remain completely in control of your breeding: you are the one who makes the time schedule (start time and end time) and who chooses the most suitable stimuli according to the knowledge you have of your poultry. Different sounds and lights, speeds, addition of waving flags... you determine how the robot will act in the building, the only precaution being to bet on a change of stimuli to maintain the surprise effect and avoid animal habituation.

4. A poultry robot must be difficult to maintain.

Robustness is an element to take into account in the design of a poultry robot. At Octopus, for example, we have relied on solid, high-quality materials, which makes T-Moov resistant, as our after-sales manager explains:

“After-sales service returns are extremely rare and when they do happen, they are common breakdowns, such as a bulb breaking. On the other hand, no failure is related to the design. In three years, I have never had to change a single battery. The shell can take millions of hits before it needs to be changed. That being said, we had a problem on version 2 of the robot: the hens tore the LEDs from the hood. We have replaced them with a strip of LEDs fixed under the bonnet, but visible thanks to a transparent zone. This is the advantage of having a small team in which the after-sales service and the Research and Development department are close: when a problem is observed at a breeder's, we react immediately to resolve it and ensure that it does not happens anymore. »

In addition, disinfection is done by following your usual protocol, in a nebulization chamber for example. Resistant to dust, ammonia and water, the poultry robot has been designed to avoid the creation of “dust or bacteria nests”. To clean it, all you have to do is remove the wheels and spray them with a high-pressure jet, then wipe them down with your disinfectant.

5. The price of a poultry robot is very high.

It happens that breeders find the price of a poultry robot high, most of the time by comparing it to that of a robot mower for example, or by considering that it is after all "just a robot who rolls”. However, a poultry robot has nothing to do with a mower or a robot vacuum cleaner: it requires a much greater technical effort in the design, insofar as it evolves in restrictive environments. Added to this, he encounters mobile obstacles (poultry), which he must neither injure nor panic...

Regardless of the technological effort, the question of price deserves to be considered from the angle of the benefits that can reasonably be expected. On this subject, breeders who use T-Moov report making their robot profitable in just 6 to 12 months.

Our teams have also carried out an experiment on a farm with 30,000 laying hens (Lohmann Blanche strain), comparing the results obtained between two different batches (one with a robot, the other without). Over a batch duration of 77 weeks, with an egg price per kilo of €0.76, the breeder gained 400 eggs in the nest per day with the robot, for an estimated total gain of €10,240. You see, a poultry robot is not a gadget!

Beneficial for poultry, it really improves the profitability of your farm, without being difficult to use or maintain.