Description
Operate and maintain a commercial poultry hatchery by setting, incubating, and hatching eggs and processing day-old chicks or poults. Duties include egg receiving and sanitation, incubation monitoring and candling, transfer to hatchers, chick processing (sexing, grading, counting, vaccination, and beak trimming where required), recordkeeping, shipment preparation, and strict biosecurity. Clean and service equipment and rooms, monitor health and mortality indicators, and handle waste in compliance.
- • Receive, inspect, and sanitize hatching eggs by lot.
- • Set eggs into incubators and program turning schedules.
- • Monitor and adjust temperature, humidity, and ventilation.
- • Candle eggs to assess fertility and development; record clears and deaths.
- • Transfer eggs from setters to hatchers at the proper age.
- • Assist weak hatchlings as directed and remove hatch debris.
- • Count, grade, and sex chicks or poults.
- • Vaccinate birds by spray, eye drop, or injection per protocol.
- • Trim beaks or toes where permitted; apply identification bands.
- • Prepare, label, and stage chick boxes for shipment.
- • Load and unload trays, racks, and chick boxes using carts or conveyors.
- • Clean and disinfect incubators, hatchers, trays, rooms, and tools.
- • Mix vaccines and disinfectants to prescribed concentrations.
- • Inspect, maintain, and report repairs for equipment and alarms.
- • Maintain hatch, fertility, cull, vaccination, and shipping records.
- • Handle and dispose of infertile eggs, culls, and waste per policy.
- • Order and inventory supplies and coordinate deliveries and shipments.
- • Follow biosecurity, animal welfare, and PPE procedures; report disease signs.
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Agriculture
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O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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Last reviewed: Jan 2026
