Guangdong has pioneered a fully mechanized model for layer‑hen farming—where humans manage the equipment, and the equipment manages the chickens.

China is one of the world’s leading egg‑laying hen‑raising countries, with both egg production and consumption ranking first globally. Guangdong Province, situated in tropical and subtropical climates, historically maintained a low level of self‑sufficiency in eggs, relying on imports from Hubei, Hunan, and other regions. However, constrained by logistical limitations, it typically took one to two weeks for eggs to travel from farm to consumer, compromising freshness and, due to breakage during transit, driving up prices. In recent years, Guangdong has pioneered an innovative, fully mechanized model for egg‑laying hen farming, adopting an advanced production approach—“people manage the equipment, and the equipment raises the chickens”—to gradually transform this situation. Beginning in the 1980s, the province introduced and assimilated cutting‑edge foreign technologies in egg‑production, not only catching up to international standards but also pursuing independent innovation to advance technological upgrading across the industry.

Currently, Guangdong Province is pioneering and advancing a fully mechanized model for layer‑hen farming, integrating mechanization with intelligent technologies. This end-to-end mechanized system employs closed‑environment, smart management, leveraging microclimate‑control technologies within the poultry houses. By coordinating environmental equipment such as wet curtains and fans, it creates optimal conditions—cool in summer and warm in winter—that promote peak egg production, enabling hens to maintain consistent performance year-round regardless of external weather fluctuations and achieving efficient, healthy egg‑laying outcomes. Chick rearing and growing are carried out in dedicated brooding and growing facilities; once the chicks reach a specified age, they are transferred to the layer‑hen barns for adult‑stage rearing. Precision feeding ensures feed efficiency and minimizes waste. Key technological components throughout the production process—including chick rearing, adult‑hen management, waste collection and treatment, and egg collection and packaging—center on advanced practices such as cage‑based housing, in‑house microclimate regulation, automated overhead‑line feeding, belt‑type manure removal, egg‑collection systems, and waste‑management technologies, supported by appropriately configured machinery. This model embodies an advanced production approach—“people manage the equipment, the equipment raises the chickens”—enabling each worker to oversee up to 100,000 birds, thereby reducing human–chicken contact and the risk of zoonotic diseases, as well as minimizing “secondary contamination” of eggs through direct human–egg interaction. Fresh eggs can be delivered to consumers as quickly as the day after production, ensuring both health and freshness. Within the farm, four‑tiered layer‑hen cage systems automate feeding, watering, manure removal, egg collection, egg transport, and packaging, while egg sorting has been upgraded from manual weighing to automated weighing.

The overall egg breakage rate has dropped from 0.8% to 0.5%, and the average number of eggs processed per worker has increased from 11,000 to 47,000—this is the reality of automated layer‑hen farming at Guangdong Guangshengyuan Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. The company’s layer‑hen breeding base houses 1.15 million hens and produces up to 40 tons of eggs daily, making it one of the largest layer‑hen operations in South China. Since launching an upgrade and modernization project in 2014, the company has successfully implemented five five‑story and six six‑story fully automated layer‑hen rearing facilities, as well as six eight‑story facilities, each equipped with a dedicated visitor corridor. In addition, it has installed three sets of automated waste‑resource‑recovery systems and two sets of egg‑grading and packaging equipment, steadily enhancing labor productivity. Today, its maximum capacity reaches 960,000 healthy, safe, and fresh eggs per day, effectively ensuring market supply and food safety. “Taking a flock of 100,000 hens as an example,” says Tan Qingtian, head of the company’s rearing technology, “traditional manual rearing requires 20 caretakers, whereas mechanized rearing needs only two caretakers and three egg‑collecting workers, significantly reducing labor costs while dramatically boosting efficiency.” Previously, each caretaker could manage no more than 5,000 birds per day; constrained by rudimentary production equipment, inefficient facility layouts, and outdated husbandry practices, such operations struggled to meet the demands of mechanized production. Moreover, severe environmental pollution from manual rearing and mounting challenges in avian disease prevention further compounded these limitations, hindering the industry’s growth.

Today, the fully mechanized production model for layer farming has significantly boosted efficiency, reduced overall production costs, and strengthened farmers’ ability to withstand market risks. The company has also introduced chicken‑raising inspection robots. These robots serve as AI‑powered “intelligent butlers” tailored for modern poultry farms, addressing longstanding industry challenges such as low efficiency in manual inspections, delayed identification of potential hazards, and overreliance on human expertise. By seamlessly integrating artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and precise indoor navigation technologies, the devices can autonomously carry out round‑the‑clock inspections inside the chicken houses. “In 2024, Guangdong Province’s livestock‑farming mechanization rate stood at approximately 40 percent, with relatively low levels of mechanization in manure management, feed delivery, and egg collection—often below 20 percent in certain stages. Most small and medium‑sized farms still rely on traditional composting methods for manure treatment, while only a few larger operations have adopted mechanized approaches such as elevated‑bed fermentation or off‑site fermentation beds. Furthermore, many small and medium‑sized layer farms in the province continue to use open‑air or semi‑open‑air housing; in summer, they lack effective cooling systems, and in winter, they are deficient in adequate ventilation and heating, leading to elevated concentrations of harmful gases like ammonia that compromise flock health and egg‑production efficiency. The fully mechanized production model for layer farming has addressed these issues, driving the sector toward large‑scale, intensive, standardized, and healthier rearing practices,” said a representative from the Guangdong Provincial Agricultural Technology Extension Center. In recent years, the Guangdong provincial government has actively promoted this fully mechanized production model through agricultural mechanization campaigns, specialized technical training programs, and optimized subsidy policies for purchasing and applying agricultural machinery. To date, roughly 90 such systems have been commissioned across Guangzhou, Kaiping, Gaozhou, and other areas in the province, housing about 4.5 million laying hens and producing an average of 4.2 million fresh eggs per day for local residents, yielding significant economic and social benefits.