Poultry Sorter and Hatcher

Work description

Under the direction of management or the Lead Sorter and Hatcher, the Poultry Sorter and Hatcher will perform the following duties: Perform skilled agricultural labor involving the accurate identification, sorting, and quality grading of day-old poultry, including chicks and poults. Workers will be required to learn and apply breed characteristics for more than 230 breeds and varieties of poultry, including chickens, turkeys, guineas, peafowl, ducks, and geese. Duties must be completed in accordance with internal quality standards and applicable American Poultry Association standards, including culling or separating birds that do not meet required quality thresholds. Workers must maintain a high level of accuracy, speed, and attention to detail to ensure that only properly sorted, healthy, vigorous, and quality-graded birds are prepared for shipment to customers. Workers must follow all biosecurity, sanitation, and animal welfare protocols to help maintain flock health and must promptly report any health, quality, or safety concerns to a supervisor. Workers may also assist with related hatchery duties during downtime, including basic chick handling, moving trays, maintaining clean work areas, and performing light cleaning tasks. Additionally, workers will care for eggs and baby poultry, which includes egg traying—placing eggs into specially designed trays with individual compartments to keep them secure for transportation, packaging, incubation, or placement in holding racks—following specific instructions on which eggs to set and carefully removing eggs from boxes for proper placement. Breed sorting involves organizing eggs according to specific breeds and ensuring accurate placement in incubation machines. Prevent mixing breeds that may appear similar when hatched and to maintain breed labels with the eggs in the machine for clear identification and tracking. Transferring includes removing trays from incubators and placing them into hatcher baskets, positioning the baskets in designated hatching machines for the next phase of the hatching process. Counting baby poultry involves carefully extracting poultry from hatchers when ready and performing accurate counting and boxing based on specific counts per corner: - 26 chicks per corner, 30 bantam chicks per corner, 13 ducks per corner, 8 geese per corner, 20 turkeys per corner, and 26 Guineas per corner. Cleaning machines and hatchery equipment involves using a power washer to thoroughly clean and maintain the equipment, ensuring a hygienic and efficient work environment.