THE REALITIES ABOUT POULTRY The Modern Farm - The Realities About Poultry_Seco | Page 34

The feeding of birds in cages has to be carefully considered, as the birds are entirely dependent on
the mash for maintenance and production. To supply vitamins A and D, cod liver oil, yeast, dried
milk powder are useful/ and fish meal or other animal protein, and balanced minerals and some
form of grit must be made available.
As in each cage there will be only pullets so one can never expect fertilized eggs, hence the
vegetative eggs will be there, which can be preserved for a longer time than fertilized eggs at
ordinary room temperature but can never be used for hatching purposes.
Advantages of the Battery Cage System
The battery cage system is associated with some of the following merits:
Ω Allows to rear greater number of birds per unit of area.
Ω Facilitates correct maintenance of records of birds.
Ω Helps in identifying poor producers and prompts culling.
Ω Controls vices of poultry like cannibalism and egg eating.
Ω Helps in production of clean eggs and removing stress factor.
Ω Allows easy control of parasitic disease like coccidiosis and worm infestation.
Ω In this system, one can take prompt steps to control feed wastage.
Ω Layers put in the cage system proved to be having more egg production than in deep litter
system.
Ω
Feed efficiency and egg weight were better in caged birds than the laying flock under deep litter
system.
Disadvantages of the Battery Cage System
Below are some of the demerits of the battery cage system:
Ω Difficult to ensure proper ventilation to birds especially under very dense conditions.
Ω Incidence of leg problem, fatty liver syndrome, cage layer fatigue, flies and bad gases in the
house will be on the increase.
Ω The handling of manure may be a problem.
Ω The investment per pullet may be higher than in the case of floor operations.
 Folding unit System: This system of housing is an innovation of recent years. In portable
folding unit’s birds being confined to one small run, the position is changed each day, giving
Page 33 of 163