Barn Spotlight: Ferme St-Ours inc

Location: Saint-Ours, Que.

Sector: Layers and pullets

The business
Ferme St.-Ours inc, owned and operated by the Bourgeois-Lefebvre-Laperle family, has been in the egg production business since 1993. They currently have 200,000 free-run layers in Quebec, 76,000 of which are in organic production.  

The need
In 2015, the producers saw an opportunity to get into aviary production. “There was a growing need for this,” notes David Lefebvre, head of operations and project manager. Thus, they started to convert their conventional barns to aviaries that year. In 2020, they hit a milestone – that’s when they replaced their last two original conventional barns with free-run systems. They now have six aviary layer barns and three pullet barns with aviary rearing systems. A fourth is on the way this year. 

The birds typically have access to an outside yard. However, with this year’s avian influenza outbreak the producers have kept them indoors.

The barn includes two rows of Hellman’s Aviary Pro 11 system. It can house 10,000 birds in organic production and 18,000 in standard production.

The barn
The producers worked with Hellman on all their barn conversions. For the two most recent projects, which are used for organic production, they went with Aviary Pro 11 systems. Each facility has a capacity for 10,000 layers in organic production and 18,000 in standard production if they ever choose to go that route. Windows provide natural lighting and the birds typically have access to an outside yard except during avian influenza outbreaks. A trained engineer, Lefebvre designed the barns’ ventilation systems. They include tunnel ventilation and heat exchangers for energy efficiency. For more, see the photos and descriptions to the right. 

Barn Spotlight highlights new and renovated barns and hatcheries. Do you know of a good candidate to be featured? Let us know at poultry@annexweb.com.