hatchery

plural hatcheries

1. A (commercial) facility where eggs, especially those of fish or poultry, are hatched under artificial conditions.

   The codfish hatchery at Wood's Hole, Massachusetts, has been highly successful.

   1885 December 26, “Summary of Events”, in The Friend: A Religious and Literary Journal, volume LIX, number 21, Philadelphia, Pa.: […] William H. Pile, published 1886, →OCLC, page 168, column 1

   5 more examples

   [A]s the interior of the hatchery was necessarily gloomy and dingy, otherwise it could not have answered its objects, a hole was pierced through the wall, large enough to place an egg in; and through this orifice it was examined [to see if the chicken egg was fertilized], with the aid of the sun-blaze outside.

   1857, William C[harles] Milne, chapter I, in Life in China, [2nd] edition, London; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] Routledge & Co. […], published 1858, →OCLC, 4th part (Shanghai), page 319

   It would probably be practicable to farm these animals [freshwater crayfish] artificially in ponds supplied with running water, such as are used at trout-hatcheries. […] [I]n this town there is already a Government trout-hatchery which has been very successful.

   1911 November 21 (date delivered), Geoffrey Smith, “The Freshwater Crayfishes of Australia”, in Proceedings of the General Meetings for Scientific Business of the Zoological Society of London, part I, number X, London: […] [F]or the [Zoological] Society [of London], […] [by] Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co., […], published March 1912, →OCLC, pages 145–146

   Meanwhile, in 1909, the trout in a certain Pennsylvania fish hatchery began to suffer from enlarged necks; a condition which so sharply affected the hatchery output that it was thought the industry would have to be abandoned.

   1929 September, Edith L. Weart, “The Conquest of Goiter”, in The North American Review, volume CCXXVIII, number 3, New York, N.Y.: North American Review Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 360, column 2

   It [Arlington Mill] is now a folk museum and contains a collection of furniture from the Cotswolds Arts and Crafts movement. Some of the mill's machinery can be seen in operation. Next door is a trout hatchery, open to the public every day during the summer.

   1980, Richard Adams [et al.], “Bibury, Gloucestershire”, in AA Book of British Villages: A Guide to 700 of the Most Interesting and Attractive Villages in Britain, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Drive Publications for the Automobile Association, →OCLC, page 57

   The poultry industry is characterized by a vertical integration in which an agribusiness firm, either through direct ownership or contract, controls the entire production process. Such firms own processing plants, feed mills, and hatcheries, and contract with farmers to raise the chickens.

   1989, J. Dennis Lord, “Poultry”, in John T. Edge, editor, Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, 1st Anchor Books edition, volume 1 (Agriculture–Environment), New York, N.Y.; London: Anchor Books, Doubleday, published May 1991, →ISBN, page 45

2. figurativelyA place where something is fostered or nurtured; a nursery.

   [T]he TVA [Tennessee Valley Authority] is itself a hatchery of public enterprise, as in the disposal of electric power it is required by statute to give preference to States, counties, municipalities, and non-profit co-operative associations.

   1942 October, David Mitrany, “The New Deal: An Interpretation of Its Origin and Nature”, in Agenda, volume 1, number 4, Oxford, Oxfordshire: [F]or the London School of Economics and Political Science by Humphrey Milford, →OCLC, page 305; quoted in Julian Huxley, “Decentralized Administration”, in TVA: Adventure in Planning, London: The Architectural Press, October 1943 (1946 printing), →OCLC, page 134