THIS OUTSIDE view of the 216-feet-long windowless house, shows its compact construction, the service doors, air vents and bulk feed bins
KRAYBILL, IN the foreground, and Charles Keagy, rear, THE CHUTES coining through the ceiling, the automatic feeder hoppers, which are
gather eggs along the center “egg aisle” of his streamlined gravity feed mash and pellets from one of electrically controlled. Should one unit
egg factory. Eggs are gathered from the 1,000 feet of nests, the flveton capacity roof-top bulk feed break down, the other will provide ample
three times daily. LF PHOTO bins on the house. Feed drops directly into feed for that side of the house LF PHQTO
Co. Poultryman Pioneers Full-
Most Lancaster county poultrymen would consider pro
duction of almost 6,000 eggs daily from 8,000 laying hens,
with less than 40 hours total labor per week as a nearly
perfect operation. Especially during the first year of pro
duction from a radically different type unit.
Most poultrymen would. But, not the man who owns
and operates ir.
Benjamin S Kraybill, RD 1, or reflections from windows; im-
Manetta, is a slender, quiet, and provement of building mainte
extremely unassuming person, nance, and the ability to adjust
But once you inspect his new lay- egg production to the time of
mg house, a suspicion of hidden day most convenient from the
talents begins to form in your labor standpoint through the au
mind tomatic lighting system
The laying house can be de
scribed as a windowless, waste
less, and fully automatic egg
factory Ben, being something of
a perfectionist, would of course,
insist it isn’t fully automatic. But
even the ancient skill oi "picking
henfruit” has- been streamlined
in his plant to where it is hardly
more than an inspection tour of
the 196 foot-long laying pens
Feeding is strictly a push-but
ton operation. He doesn’t even
have to press a button to water
his birds As for the once hor
rendous task of cleaning the
poultry house, you guessed it It
is another button, or rather, thiee
buttons
This leaves egg gathering, cull
ing, and maintenance as hand la
bor m the operation.
The most truly unique facets
of the operation are- windowless
construction controlled ventila
tion, case-fillers for egg gather
ing and the egg-room insulation
Kravbill is sold on windowless
construction because of the com
plete control it offers of the en
tire operation
This includes
Control of ventilation and con
trolled lighting, complete build
ing insulation; no window upkeep
Controlled ventilation in mself
offers several advantages These
include disease prevention, and
maintenance of steady temper
atures
House temperature is kept at
least 10 degrees below outside
leadings m summer and will be
held around 40-50 degrees in
winter
All lighting is clock controlled,
with the layeis currently receiv
ing 14 hours per day. If mer
chandising required having the
eggs i eady for buyers at noon
each day, the lights could be set
to ha\e most of the laying done
fiom 10 or 11 pm to 10 a m
oi any like period desired.
Kravbill also is considering us
ing the “Stimulating System ’
with the 42 flourescent lamps,
whan his next pullets are placed
in the house When that day
comes, the slatted floor, pit clean
er and disease free conditions
will enable rapid transition from
old birds to \oung without weeks
spent in propaung the house
L Ti: e of case fillers for egg
gathering is a relatively new and
oMiOus time-sa\er The egg case
Pllei flats are simply stacked
six high ready to go in the case,
on the three shelves of the gath-
enng cart, as it is wheeled along
the egg aisle When a cart is full,
it is wheeled into the cooung
room, odd eggs placed in special
baskets, and the six-high filler
stacks placed m cases after the
eggs cool Usually less than a
dozen eggs must go in the odd
baskets
On the surface, the cooling
room Is no 'different than any
other It is 14 x 20 feet m size,
located in one corner of the serv
ice room, with the building’s
cinder-block walls forming two
sides and 2x4 studding the other
two walls A three-quarter ton
cooling unit holds the tempera
turs at 58 60 degrees
The inner insulation is the
major difference, however It con
sists of a gleaming white, 2-
inch thick layer of Styrofoam,
the sparkly, cusp, white plastic
substance often seen m store win
dow displays.
Resembling sponge rubber in
its texture, Styrofoam is rela
tively inexpensive, easy to clean,
and very effective in insulating
the cooling loom Although it
is a new substance for farm in
sulation, Kray bill heartily recom
mends it for this purpose
The building’s overall size is
50 x 216 feet Walls are cinder
block, the roofing is channel
drain, copper-coated steel, inter
ior insulation on the ceiling con
sists of a one-halt inch layer of
sheet rock, three inches of rock
wool bats, and an air space
The cinder block walls are
coated with a special waterproof
cement mixture, spiajed on at
high piessure This tvpe wall was
used for economy and insulation
Steel looting was used because
of its inherent strength and the
savings in sheathing beneath it.
The half-inch sheet rock was de
cided upon because of a “no
sag ’ guarantee
The 20 x 50 feet service section
is at one end, with 14 laying pens
occupying the rest of the struc
ture The service room contains
a 14 x 20 egg cooling room, egg
washer, distribution and power
units of the automatic feeding
system chutes from the roof-top
bulk feed bins, supplies, well
pump and large water tank.
The laving pens ais divided
by wire partitions, crossing every
28 linear feet of the building,
with a four-foot “egg aisle” run
ning down the center of the build-
ing
Ground breaking for the build
ing foundations was last Nov 1,
v ith most of th? construction
being handled by an Amish con
struction ciew Kraybill empha
sizes he woud never again build
in winter.
On March 29, 3,800 hvbnd pul
lets were housed with the rest
of an 8240 pullet total added on
April 8 and 10 Production had
ah ead\ started on April Ist
with 30 eggs recorded Apul
25th production was 3 000 and
bv Mai 18 pioduction icached
the 5 000 mark
On each side of the aisle, the
pens have a single V t>pe water
trough running through the een
ter There are two endless-chain
t\pe feed units on each side of
’he aisle pioviding feed ‘insur
ance" for all lavers, in case one
motor should bum out or me
chanical troubles decelop Ben
points out this insurance is one
maior icason he selected his nai
ticular equipment, plus the fact
the two units offer four house-
Control
length feed troughts on each side
of the building
With 616 sq ft in each pen and
deducting for equipment aiea,
each of the 583 birds in each pen
has slightly more than one square
foot of floor space There are 27
nests m each pen, three high,
with the slanting wire floor feed
ing eggs into the collecting tray
on the aisle.
The entire floor area of pens is
of slat construction, with drop
pings falling into the pits, which
are cleaned twice weekly with a
s\stem of three electrically op
erated pit cleaners his ten year
old son and a manure spieadei
Even after months of use, the
dat floors remain exceptional
clean, and with the twice weekly
pA cleaning leaies Kraybill with
no parasite problem with his
flock internal oi external.
llanv of these features have
been incorporated into Lancas
ter count} lawns; houses before
but as far as Kracbill knows, this
is the first windowless, slatted
floor automation house of its
t\pe in Pennschania
Although th?re aie no win
dows 14 insulated doors were in
stalled along each side of the
building to be used in mo\ mg
chicken crates in and out
Ventilation is handled be a spe
cial!} designed scstem of push
pull fans with si\ p:i side Pro
\ifhrg complete contiol of air
cn dilation in am weathet the
scs’em was pud lor b\ savings
m the window less consli net ion V
complete chancre of air is made
e\cn three minutes in summei
and si\ nvnutcs 1 11 wmlci
‘A lot ot people weic waiting
(Continued on page eleven)