Chicken Cage Influences in Poultry Farming:
Chirchir, an accountant at a government institution, says. “Egg production from my 8,600 chickens has doubled since I moved them from deep litter to the caging system”. Using chicken cage poultry farming become lot easier than normal farming. Egg collecting, feeding, watering, everything become much easier. Without cages, Chickens fell victim to diarrhea and loss of feathers in dusty floor. Which will make them less productive. Caging system is hygienic, comfortable and safe to birds. It is also cheaper and efficient. And takes a higher number of chicken to fit in a little space. De-feathering is a result of small mites that hide in dusty floors and feed onto chickens at night. As a result, chicken will end up losing their feather by scratching. But this isn’t the worst part, blood strain will come out with waste, which is known as coccidiosis. It will affect their feeding system & egg production will be lower.
Using cage a chicken takes maximum floor area of 450 to 525 square centimeters. Which is four times less than normal poultry farming.
How Your Chicken Cage Quality Can Affect Your Business
Let us consider that you are not using any chicken cages, what could happen? Your chicken will be dirtier. Eggs will be dirtier and the manure will be producing ammonia & your chickens will be exposes to diseases. Now consider using a low quality chicken cage, which is not so different from without using one. Using high quality cages will reduce will labor cost, as it needs less maintenance. And there will be no feed loss. Moreover about the manure store system, in low quality cage manure will be moisture & produce huge amount of ammonia .There will be also small mites, which will cause de-feathering and sickness to the chicken. Unhealthy chicken will be a loss of your business. Unhealthy chicken will lose their lying performance gradually, which will bring an even greater loss. Cages also reduce cannibalism & increase productivity. Casing system also reduce your housing space & it will help you to rear more chicken in less space. So using qualified cage should be your best choice to make business more profitable. And as for low quality cage, it is as bad as not using any cage.
Forms and Types of Chicken Cage
Poultry Battery Cage
Structure and Layout:
Many country use battery cage for rearing hens. Battery cages are the most used cages. These are small cages, usually 3 to 8 hens can fit in each cage. These cages are made by metals in modern way. The walls are made by mesh or solid ductile metals. The floor is sloped wire mesh. Which allow the faces to drop through? Water is usually provided by overhead nipple systems. A mechanical chain replenish foods in a trough along the front of the cage at regular intervals.
The arrangement of identical cages are connected together in long rows as multiple tiers, sharing common divider wall often with cages back-to-back as in the cell of battery, hence the term battery cage came up. This long row of cages is called shed. In a single shed, there are several floors containing battery cages. That means, a single shed may contain many tens of thousands of hens. Light intensity is kept low to reduce vent pecking & feather pecking.
In farms using cages for egg production, more birds can be housed in per unit area. Floor space is upward from about 300 cm2 per bird in battery cages. EU standards in 2003 called for at least 550 cm2 per hen. The current recommendation by the United Egg Producers 430 to 560 cm2 per bird. The space available for each hen in a battery cage is less than the size of a sheet of A4 paper .Others have commented that a typical cage is about the size of a filing cabinet drawer. Which can hold eight to 10 hens.
Why Beneficial?
- It is easier to care for the chicks & hens.
- Floor eggs are eliminated means Eggs are cleaner.
- Collection of eggs are lot easier
- Need less feeding to produce a dozen eggs.
- More chicks or hens can be housed in a given house floor space.
- Internal parasites are eliminated.
- Labor requirements are much reduced.
- Broodiness is eliminated.
- Hens and chicks stay cleaner.
Chicken Broiler Cage
Structure and Layout:
Housing is very important in poultry production in modern industry. So the greater the housing space in a cage the lesser will be the cost. Broiler cages are specialized for high density farming of chicken. Broiler cage’s structure is almost as same as the structure of chicken layer cage. The only difference is Broiler cage has hot dipped & highly galvanized wire as cage materials. It has the best cleaning system, feeding system & drinking system, which improve the productivity than other cages. Automatic feeding system is available, so that one can easily feed the broiler with less loss of foods & you can adjust the feeding rate and height according to your purpose.
Why Beneficial?
- These cages are hot dipped galvanized to avoid rust & corrosion, for that it has a lifetime of about 20-30 years.
- Sliding cages are provided in right or left side of the cages, which makes easier the removal or transfer of chicken from farm to farm.
- No labor cost is needed, any man with basic knowledge can handle it.
- Joints are featured with high strength.
- Special thick hot dipped galvanized wire mesh cage can hold the heavy broilers without any problems.
- Broilers stays much cleaner in cages.
- Automatic feeding system.
Chicken Layer Cage
Structure and Layout:
Chicken layer cages have a width of 49.2″ and the length is 95″. Also, another fact is the length of the compartment can be enlarged in stages 23.7″. So that the flock size can be determined by the customers individually. Both male and female birds can exhibit the natural behavior because of the reinforced perch in the center of the cage. A closed partition separates the individual cages & ensure calmness within the birds. Which also keeps the males separated in different groups. Zinc-aluminum coating is generally used for the cage front and for the bottom wire of the cage. These cages are available with or without air duct. This allows higher housing space, has minimum labor requirements. And also ensures healthy eggs with perfect hatching.
This caging system has by default a good feeding system in it. The feed chain carries the food to the birds evenly and without separating it. Low maintenance required for feeding. Feed losses are avoided by the deep trough.
The flat-surfaced foot rail, made of stainless steel, slide the eggs to the trough area. This means short roll-off distances and which increases egg quality. The foot rail also prevents possibility of falling into the cage below and the birds cannot peck any eggs.
There is an Egg Saver, which ensures the safe rolling-off of eggs to the longitudinal belt. An additional advantage is for the newly laid eggs is, they dry while sliding to the Egg saver, for which feather or dust cannot stick to the eggs.
The manure collected by the Manure belt beneath the bottom wires. Which can remain up to 6 days. The air duct gives a direct air flow just upon the manure belt which helps to reduce the extraction of ammonia as well as dries the manure.
Watering system in chicken layer cages is highly effective, water nipple are located outside each cages. These are made of stainless steel. The splash water is collected by drip cup, which keeps the cage safe from corrosion & keep the manure dry.
Why Beneficial?
- low risk of salmonella
- clean hatching eggs
- low labor & maintenance cost
- optimum number of chicken
- low ammonia emission
- Uniformly higher lying performance
- Auto feeding system
- Auto watering system
Facts to Consider Before You Buy Your Chicken Poultry Cage
Some facts must be consider before you buy your chicken poultry cages.
- Housing space: You should buy cages with more housing space. Which will give you less maintenance time and less afford.
- Strength and durability: You must consider the strength of the cage metal & it galvanizing information. Don’t buy any cage which are not galvanized. It’s give you a less lifetime of usage.
- Feeding system: Now-a-days automatic feeding system is getting more useful and helpful. Automatic feeding system is more preferable than manual feeding system, automatic feeding system provides less loss of food. So you should consider buying cages with automatic feeding system.
- Watering system: Automatic water system is preferable.
- Cleaning system: Cleaning system must be easy and less time consuming.
- Manure storage: Manure storage must be kept dry, so buy the cage which has the manure storage system in less moisture place and has a direct air flow.
- Egg collection system: Automatic egg collecting is less time consuming and effective. So you much choose cages with automatic egg collecting system.
- Cage price: As long as budget is concerned, the price of the set of chicken cages is important because they are going to be one of your major investments. So watch around the market, check prices of types of cages you are targeting to buy any make the best decision.
- Supplier: Well, this might sound less important, but I would personally recommend choosing your retailer or cage supplier considering a number of facts. As the cages you are going to buy are going to be a long term investment, the more professional supplier you chose, the better it is.
If you are from around Africa, and willing to start your own poultry business, then might be tough for you to choose the best supplier. Well, in that case, I would recommend you HighTop Metal Mesh- Chicken Cage Factory as the cage supplier as because of their years of experience and trusted customer service along with the best quality products (cages, most importantly).
