The productivity of egg-cross chickens depends on them numbers in cages of 12-tier batteries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31548/poultry2023.07-08.018Keywords:
hpoultry farming, chickens, productivity, density, maintenance, group size, preservation, laying, eggsAbstract
The group size of hens is one of the key stimuli that affects the welfare of the bird. This is especially important for hens, which evolutionarily live in much smaller groups in the natural environment than in the conditions of enterprises producing edible eggs. But the specific parameters of hеns group size for keeping them in cages of multi-tiered batteries of traditional structures, known as "conventional cages" or "battery cages" according to the international classification, are not regulated by either domestic or foreign standards. There are only restrictions on the minimum number of chickens in one cage of batteries of "improved" designs ("modified enriched cages", or "furnished cages"). It should be at least 7 birds. Therefore, the purpose of the work was to study the productivity and efficiency of the production of edible eggs by increasing group size of hеns in cages of 12-tier batteries of traditional structures from 9 to 93 birds at the standard stocking density (area provision). For this, in the conditions of a modern complex for the production of edible eggs, 4 groups of hens were formed, each of which was kept in a separate poultry house-similar in area (2915 m2), equipped with 12-tier "Big Dutchman" cage batteries, the size and area of which cages differed. The group size of hens on 1st group was 9 birds/cage, 2 groups – 17 birds/cage, 3 groups – 52 birds/cage, 4 groups – 93 birds/cage, density of keeping hens of all groups – 22.6-23.1 birds/m2 with regulatory requirements no more than 25 birds/m2. It was established that an increase the group size of hens in cages from 9 to 93 birds contributes to an increase in the level of preservation (by 5.7%), laying per initial laying hen (by 9.1%), the volume of egg production (by 71.4%), in including based on the calculation per 1 m2 of the poultry house area, the level of profitability of their production from 34.7% to 40.1% and the reduction of the cost price from 1.70 to 1.56 UAH/egg.References
Appleby, M. C. (2004). What causes crowding? Effects of space, facilities and group size on behaviour, with particular reference to furnished cages for hens.Animal Welfare, 13, 313–320. [English].
Appleby, M. C. (1998). The Edinburgh modified cage: effects of group size andspace allowance on brown laying hens. Journal of Applied Poultry Research, 7,152–161. doi:10.1093/japr/7.2.152. [English].
Bas Rodenburg, T., & Koene, P. (2007). The impact of group size on damaging behaviours, aggression, fear and stress in farm animals. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 103(3–4), 205–214. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2006.05.024. [English].
Benyi, K., Norris D., & Tsatsinyane, P. M. (2006). Effects of stocking density and group size on the performance of white and brown Hyline layers in semiarid conditions. Tropical Animal Health and Production, 38, 619–624. doi:10.1007/s11250-006-44. [English].
Croney, C. C., & Newberry, R. C. (2007). Group size and cognitive processes. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 103(3–4), 215–228. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2006.05.023. [English].
El-Tahawy A.A.S., Taha A. E., & Adel S. A. (2017). Effect of flock size on the productive and economic efficiency of "Ross-308" and "Cobb-500" broilers.European Poultry Science, 81, 1–10. doi:10.1399/eps.2017.175. [English].
Guo, Y. Y., Song, Z. G., Jiao, H. C., Song, Q. Q., & Lin, H. (2012). The effect of group size and stocking density on the welfare and performance of hens housed in furnished cages during summer. Animal Welfare, 21, 41–49. doi:10.7120/096272812799129501. [English].
Hetland, H., Moe, R. O., Tauson, R., Lervik, S., & Svihus, B. (2004). Effect of includingwhole oats into pellets on performance and plumage condition in laying henshoused in conventional and furnished cages. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica – Section A: Animal Science, 54, 206–212. doi:10.1080/09064700410010026. [English].
Keeling, L. J., Estevez, I., Newberry, R. C., & Correia, M. G. (2003). Production-relatedtraits of layers reared in different sized flocks: The concept of problematicintermediate group sizes. Poultry Science, 82, 1393–1396. doi:10.1093/ps/82.9.1393. [English].
Kiani A. (2022). Effects of Group Sizing on Behavior, Welfare, and Productivity of Poultry. Journal of World's Poultry Research, 12(1), 52–68. doi:10.36380/jwpr.2022.7. [English].
Mace, J. L., & Knight, A. (2022). The Impacts of Colony Cages on the Welfare of Chickens Farmed for Meat. Animals (Basel), 12(21), 2988. doi:10.3390/ani12212988. [English].
Otte, J., Rushton, J., Rukambile, E. & Alders, R. G. (2021). Biosecurity in Village and Other Free-Range Poultry – Trying to Square the Circle? Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 8, 678419. doi:10.3389/fvets.2021.678419. [English].
Pizzari, T., & McDonald, G.C. (2019). Sexual selection in socially-structured, polyandrous populations: some insights from the fowl. Advances in the Study of Behavior, 51, 77–141. doi:10.1016/bs.asb.2019.02.001. [English].
Rozempolska-Rucińska, I., Janicka, K., Ziemiańska, A., Kasperek, K., Drabik, K., Nowakowicz-Dębek, B., & Zięba, G. (2023). Does social position affect well-being in laying hens? Journal of Animal and Feed Sciences, 32(3), 280–288. doi:10.22358/jafs/159910/2023. [English].
Sarıca M., Karakoc K., & Erensoy K. (2022). Effects of varying group sizes on performance, body defects, and productivity in broiler chickens. Archives Animal Breeding, 65, 171–181. doi:10.5194/aab-65-171-2022. [English].
Shimmura, T., Azuma, T., Eguchi, Y., Uetake, K., &Tanaka, T. (2009). Effects ofseparation of resources on behaviour, physical condition and production oflaying hens in furnished cages. British Poultry Science, 50, 39–46. doi:10.1080/00071660802613260. [English].
Vits, A., Weitzenburger, D., Hamann, H., & Distl, O. (2005). Production, egg quality,bone strength, claw length, and keel bone deformities of laying hens housed infurnished cages with different group sizes. Poultry Science, 84, 1511–1519. doi:10.1093/ps/84.10.1511. [English].
Wan, Y., Du, Q., Wang, D., Ma, R., Qi, R., Yang, R. … & Li, Y. (2023). Effects of Different-Sized Cages on the Production Performance, Serum Parameters, and Caecal Microbiota Composition of Laying Hens. Animals, 13(2), 266. doi:10.3390/ani13020266. [English].
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Relationship between right holders and users shall be governed by the terms of the license Creative Commons Attribution – non-commercial – Distribution On Same Conditions 4.0 international (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0):https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.uk
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
