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No Egg Shortage Here
While some North Island centres have been experiencing an egg shortage in recent weeks, Nel-sonians have been able to have their requirements met without the rationing that has followed the shortage up north. Nelson is fortunate in having a thriving poultry industry which supplies the egg floor at Farm Products Co-operative in Halifax Street with close on 1 million dozen eggs a year. To give you some idea of what happens to the eggs you buy from the time the hen does her bit, we took our Camera on to the egg floor.
The eggs, carefully packed in crates, are unloaded by Ron McAlpine at the floor.
Lorraine Allen supervises the loading - a rotary pick-up-and-distributor consisting of rubber suction cups transfers the eggs to a conveyor belt.
The eggs leave the belt and drop into a rotary, electronically-controlled grader which separates the eggs into their proper grades and these are hand-packed by Janette Barnett, Kath Smith, and Lorraine Wells.
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In a cosy corner Monica Morgan assembles the familiar boxes (average assembly time, 7 sec).
Before reaching the grading table, the eggs on the conveyor belt pass over a light and Wanaka Rose is quick to spot any imperfections.
Surplus or cracked eggs are pulped on a locally-designed and made machine (the only one of its kind in the world), which can process 6000 eggs an hour - it's operated here by Ruth Johnson.
The eggs, on a conveyor, are punctured by needles at right and their contents sucked up by hollow needles.
The pulped egg, having passed through a cooler, is weighed and packed by Doug Stewart.