Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

The second course started Monday and our first excursion was on Tuesday. We went to Barneveld to visit a laying hen farm. It was a Rondeel farm which is a franchise and there are currently 3 in the Netherlands. It has  received a lot of environmental and animal welfare awards. The owner gave us a presentation about the supply chain of the egg, the inputs and the outputs, which we later had to hand in to our teacher as an assignment. Albert Heijn is their main supplier but they also supply to some direct retailers. 30, 000 hens are laying eggs in this barn. He also had another 'normal' chicken barn and a pig barn but we didn't see these. He was very much set up for the public because it is important to be transparent to the consumers. Here are some pictures:

The conference room. We also got coffee and tea at our arrival!

A glass floor to see the collection center

A tunnel for the public to see the hens

Funny picture, too bad the glass was dirty

A whole hallway of explanations about the process of getting an egg on your plate

This is what the barn looked like. There were a number of pie shaped areas. On the brown outside round, the hens could walk outside in the mud. There was cages around it so the foxes couldn't get in. In the white part was artificial grass and different levels so the hens could jump and play here. These 2 areas together were the outside corridors. Inside were the laying nests, food, and water. The eggs were transported to the center of the circle for collection. Another interesting thing is that when the hens sit on a beam in front of the nests and they poop, their poop gets a quick air dry, gets collected twice a week, and goes to the neigbor who makes pellets out of it which are used for fertilizer.

The chickens outside. They all followed us. It was funny to see that most of the students had not been outside the city or to a farm before. I was pretty used to it.

the chickens playing

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It was a very interesting tour. Of course, there are always the students who ask stupid questions. "How much does it cost to build this barn and how much do you earn?" Luckily, he kept that confidential. We got back on the bus and drove 45 minutes back to Utrecht. There we had a lunch/assignment break and were in class for the rest of the afternoon.

The lunch room at the hogeschool business school

Attempting to make pancakes for supper. They were okay but not the best.

Tuesday nights are summerschool drinks at a local student cafe. Since we were studying so hard the last 2 weeks, we finally had a chance to go. It was very fun and nice to meet some other people from other courses. I biked Madlen home again after the drinks which continues to amaze me by my biking skills in the middle of the night slightly intoxicated. haha

The 3 girls on the left are all in a group together for the next 3 weeks! The other is from Mexico.