Growing broilers in a comfort colony system
//15 Jun 2011
It seems contradictory to current trends: keeping birds in cages, rather than on the floor. Or said in a different and probably better way: keeping them in a comfort colony system. Yet, practice has proved that broiler cages offer a wide range of advantages, both for the birds and for the poultry producer. Owners Onur and Ömür Oral of the Orallar company in Turkey, recently started using two broiler cage houses of 80,000 birds each. Take a look at their premises and at the broiler cage systems they are using.
A broiler cage system consists of 4 to 6 rows of usually 3 or 4 tiers of compartments in each house
Growing broilers in a comfort colony system
A broiler cage system consists of 4 to 6 rows of usually 3 or 4 tiers of compartments in each house
Depending on the make of the cages and the end weight for slaughter, the number of birds per compartment may vary. But usually it ranges from 100 to 165 birds per section
Composition of the feed pellets is important to avoid spilling by particularly the young birds. Also the correct construction of the pan feeder contributes to that
In the Jansen Bromaxx system, specially designed feeder pans and a flexible polystyrene slatted floor have proved to be beneficial
At the front end of the system there’s room for feed and water supply
Once the birds have grown up, they will be taken on the cleaned manure belts to the central collection belt at the rear end of the cage rows
Outside the house, the birds will be loaded manually into crates. These are loaded onto the truck that takes them to slaughter
Compared to a littered floor system, manure production is limited in a cage system. It can also easily be loaded onto a truck. Note the large amount of air inlets and exhaust fans
Onur and Omür Oral are brothers. Together they own and run the Orallar company, a major breeder and broiler operation in Turkey. They installed two houses with cage systems for keeping 80,000 broilers each
Particularly in hot climates, adequate cooling systems are of paramount importance to keep the climate inside the house under control
Since there is a high stocking density, the birds need to have access to fresh and evenly distributed air all the time
Keeping broliers in in comfort colony ssytem offers various advantages, such as better FCR, less medication, and less mortality. Adequate management is essential, however
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