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After 18 days the eggs are removed from the incubator and placed into hatching baskets.

These baskets are kept in a small room that is maintained at 36.8 C with at a relative humidity of 290. On the twentieth day the humidity is increased to 320 rh.

The baskets of hatched chicks are removed from the hatching room on the 21st day. 

In the smaller hatcheries around Britain, the chicks are removed by hand from the baskets and placed on a conveyor that takes them to the sexing department.

The hatchery staff start work at five o'clock in the morning and the first batch of chicks will start their journey to the farm in temperature control lorries two hours later. 

The sexing carousel for feather sexing consists of a slowly rotating trough.