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In Agriculture , battery cages (called '''laying cages''' in the United States) are a confinement system used primarily for egg-laying Hens . HISTORY An early reference to battery cages appears in Milton Arndt's 1931 book, Battery Brooding,Arndt, Battery Brooding, 2nd edition. Orange Judd Publishing, 1931, pp. 308-312. where he reports that his cage flock was healthier and had higher egg production than his conventional flock. At this date battery cages already sported the sloped floor that allowed eggs to roll out to the front of the cage, where they were easily collected by the farmer and out of the hens' reach. Arndt also mentions the use of conveyor belts under the cages to remove the manure, which gives a superior ability to control air quality and eliminate fly breeding than other methods. Battery cages were an extension of the technology used in battery brooders, which were cages with a wire mesh floor and integral heating elements for brooding baby chicks. The wire floor allowed the manure to pass through, removing it from the chicks' environment and eliminating manure-borne diseases. Early battery cages were often used for selecting hens based on performance, since it is easy to track how many eggs each hen is laying if only one hen is placed in a cage. Later, this was combined with artificial insemination, giving a technique where each egg's parentage is known. This method is still used today. Early reports about battery cages were enthusiastic. Ardnt reported: This form of battery is coming into widespread use throughout the country and apparently is solving a number of the troubles encountered with laying hens in the regular laying house on the floor. A number of progressive poultrymen from all over the United States and some in foreign countries cooperated with me in carrying on experimental work with this type of battery and each and every one of them were very well satisfied with the results obtained. IN fact, a number of them have since placed their entire laying flocks in individual hen batteries."Arndt,p. 310. The use of laying batteries increased gradually, becoming the dominant method somewhat before the integration of the egg industry in the Sixties. In 1990, North and Bell reported that 75% of all commercial layers in the world and 95% in the U.S. were kept in cages.Mack O. North and Donald E. Bell, Commercial Chicken Production Manual, Fourth Edition. 1990, Van Nostrand Reinhold, page 297. By all accounts a caged layer facility is more expensive to build than high-density floor confinement, but can be cheaper to operate if designed to minimize labor. North and Bell report the following advantages to laying cages:Commercial Chicken Production Manual, p. 315.
They also cite disadvantages to cages:
Note that disadvantages 1 and 2 can be eliminated by manure conveyors as pioneered by Arndt. In general, farmers and poultry scientists who have used both floor confinement and cages do not seem to have felt that cages were either ineffective or inhumane, though there was considerable criticism of individual installations that were too expensive or were poorly designed to yield the all-important reduction in labor inputs. POLITICS They have been condemned by animal protection organizations and there have been moves to enact laws to ban them. On June 17, 1999 the European Union announced a Europe-wide ban on battery-hen cages by the year 2012 http://www.upc-online.org/fall99/eu_cage_ban.html. REFERENCES |
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