Dr. Nick Fremch

Retired incubation specialist

Topic: Past, present and future of incubation technology - a perspective from research and science

Dr Nick French retired in 2020 after 37 years working in the poultry industry, much of that time as an expert in incubation and hatcheries.  Nick completed his first degree in Zoology and Psychology at the University of Bristol, UK and then when to the University of Bath, UK to complete his PhD on incubation in wild birds.  At the completion of his PhD, Nick joined British United Turkeys (later to become Aviagen Turkeys) initially as a Research Specialist on reproduction.  Nick would continue to work at British United Turkeys for the next 26 years, for the last 5 years as Technical Director.

In 2009, Nick moved from turkeys to chicken when he joined Aviagen Ltd as an Incubation Specialist, part of the Hatchery Specialist Team.  In 2012, Nick was appointed Global Head of Technical Transfer, responsible for both the Technical Transfer and Technical Systems teams in Aviagen.  Technical Transfer produce the technical literature for Aviagen and Technical Systems develop and use specialist tools for data collection and analysis.  

Over the years, Nick has been a regular speaker at scientific conferences, mostly talking about incubation but also covering other areas of poultry science.  Nick has written many scientific papers and chapters in books.  In his retirement, Nick is a sub-editor for British Poultry Science and has edited a book on Incubation and Hatchery Management.  Over his career, Nick has had a long involvement with the Incubation and Fertility Research Group, and was chairman of the group for 4 years. Nick lives near Chester in the UK with his wife Angela and his two children live nearby..