Rearing cages traded for two tier free housing system
The family Huiskes in the Dutch village Zuidwolde is almost at the end of their second flock in their new two tier free range house. In 2003 the family started building their new farm house with assistance of installation company Agrotechniek the official Jansen Poultry Equipment dealer for the North part of The Netherlands. Originally the house was equipped with rearing cages. This house was absolutely ready for replacement and also the rearing method in cages was getting some critic.
Because the family has an other house with cage rearing the choice for the new system was some what limited. By realising a free housing system the own reared birds could be used and the overall company results would be less depending on rearing alone. When you look back over the last three years and how the ideas where still very diverse about the cages systems a lot has changed regarding demands and regulations. That makes a long-term vision very difficult.
An other reason for the choice of free housing is that this system gives you great overview and offers an absolute contribution to the work convenience. The construction of the 20,6 meter wide and 66 meter long house with on each level two rows of laying nests and manure belts was under own complete control. “It was a very busy time and at the end you say to yourself never again but if I think back of it now I would probably do it al over again” Mr Huiskes says.
At the start of a new flock the birds are locked on the slats during the night. 4 days and no longer it is asking some effort but this will payback at a later stage. The results were very good. Some problems did occur with the watering system. This was caused because the birds were reared in a system with a special nipple for broilers. This did not corresponded with the water system in the house. We did not think of this in advance. By replacing one nipple every 4 nipples the problem was soon solved. The water consumption went up 25 % and the feed consumption likewise. The feed conversion ended up at 2,08 which is exceptional for layers.
At the end it did cost some kilograms production. If this change had been done later during the round the result would have been much different. During the second flock the production was definitely higher. The birds keep the feathers very nicely and there is hardly any cannibalism.
Mr. Huiskes has the idea that with aviary systems there are more escape possibilities for the birds, but this does not result in any doubts for his choice. This system has maybe a higher investment cost per bird but it is a good match with the company management. In this house it does not matter when the floor eggs are collected. The birds are 63 weeks and are still producing over the 85 % with less then 30 floor eggs per day.
During the peak of production this was even less then that. In the house there are no electrical wires to avoid floor eggs. With 20.000 birds you are very happy when in this easy way 17.000 eggs a day come to the collection room. Mr. Huiskes sorts the eggs in the central collection room where the eggs are transported onto the packing machine with the Jansen Poultry Equipment Flexbelt.
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