HOW TO START A BATTERY CAGE SYSTEM TYPE OF POULTRY FARMING

Battery cage system is a form of intensive system of poultry farming. The principle of this is based on confinement of birds in cages, the number of birds per cage varies from one to four depending on;
 The size of the birds
 Size of the cage
 Farmers preference
The cages are arranged in the whole length of the building, the cages are placed in tiers completely off set such that they rest on top of another.
The lowest cage should be at least 0.75 -1m above the ground to allow for easy cleaning.
There should be enough space between the cages to allow for walking at least 0.75 to 1 m apart.

Requirements for success of battery cages
 The house should be solid wall and concrete floor
 Proper drainage ,
 good ventilation and
 proper lighting
 front end side designed to form roll away laying nest
 Drinking nipple should be red in color for easy identification

Advantages

1. Operation can be mechanized for feeding and watering thus less human labor
2. Space economy reduce feed consumption
3. Reduced risk of infections
4. Allows better flock supervision
5. Clean eggs are laid
6. Bird monitoring
7. Broodiness is minimized

Drawbacks

1. More capital requirements because of cages, solid wall and concrete floor
2. Not good for broilers because they develop breast blisters thus degrade the carcass.
3. Not good for broiler breeders and pullets or growers, the eggs produced in cages cannot be used for breeding
4. Birds easily develop cage fatigue because they stand throughout the life. Cage fatigue is caused by lack of calcium by withdrawal of calcium from the bones thus birds become weak. So birds should be given 4% of calcium for battery cage per day.

Also check our article on poultry vices