Commercial Poultry Production and Hatchery Management

CAGE SYSTEM

• Rearing birds in cages is more scientific than under deep litter system, which is soon becoming obsolete and out-dated.
• In this system the birds are confined in a cage just enough to permit very limited movement and allow the bird to stand and sit comfortably.
• With steep rise in the price of land and increasing construction cost, poultry farmers are changing over to cage system.

Advantages

• Minimum area of land is required
• More number of eggs produced per hen
• Less feed wastage
• Better feed efficiency
• Protection from worms
• Reduced Soil borne diseases
• Disease outbreak can be prevented by earlier detection
• Clean egg production
• Easy to cull unproductive birds
• Vices like egg eating and pecking are minimum
• Broodiness is eliminated
• Less labour requirement
• No need of litter materials

Disadvantages

• High initial investment over cages
• Higher incidence of shell breakages
• Development of cage layer fatigue (It is a condition in caged birds with lameness and unable to stand properly. It might be due to phosphorus and calcium deficiency but exact cause is not known)
• Development of fly problems