Animal husbandry – Confining or housing – Animal display or open work enclosure
Patent
1995-07-18
1996-11-05
Swiatek, Robert P.
Animal husbandry
Confining or housing
Animal display or open work enclosure
119480, A01K 3104, A01K 3106
Patent
active
055706576
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to an arrangement for breeding poultry as classified in the precharacterizing clause of the main claim.
It is customary nowadays to breed, i.e. to fatten, poultry, for example so-called fattening chickens or broilers, in cage batteries, said poultry being removed from these cages and sent to a slaughter house when they reach the so-called "slaughtering weight".
The classification--defining GB-21 03 915 A discloses a breeding battery in which the grid base comprises a plastic netting which is flexible and consequently adapts well to the animal's body. This grid base is divided into individual sections, which can be connected one behind the other in the longitudinal axis of the rows of cages and can be moved out of the cage by means of a drive, and it is hoped that, with appropriate forward movement of the individual grid bases, the chickens can then be removed at the end of the row of cages. However, the chickens grip the grid base with their claws and removal of the chickens is possible only with the risk of injuring the chickens. This known arrangement thus does not represent a solution to the problem as to how the removal of the animals from a barn can be performed without spending considerable time and without the risk of injury to the animals.
The invention is thus based on the object of simplifying the operation of removal from a barn and providing an apparatus by which the removal from the barn is possible without the risk of injury to the animals.
This object on which the invention is based is achieved by the teaching of the main claim.
Advantageous developments are explained in the subclaims.
The invention essentially relates to an apparatus for removing fattening chickens or broilers from a barn, the removal operation being simplified by the base, designed in a way known per se as a grid, of the individual cages being pulled away from under the feet of the animals, so that the animals fall from the grid base which was there onto a conveyor belt located beneath. Since the distance from the grid base to the conveyor belt is not very great, this does not cause any great disturbance in the cage, and it is then possible to convey the animals out of the rows of cages by the conveyor belt, otherwise serving as an excrement conveyor belt. It goes without saying that beforehand the excrement conveyor belt is cleared of the excrement otherwise on it. Since the excrement conveyor belt is usually designed as a solid-surface belt and not as a grid belt, like the actual grid base, the animals cannot grip onto the excrement conveyor belt and are thus delivered at the delivery point of the excrement conveyor belt in a very simple way from this belt onto a further-conveying belt, which, according to a further feature of the invention, preferably comprises two mutually parallel arranged guides for roller chains which bear support rods which are arranged at a distance from one another and are aligned transversely with respect to the longitudinal direction of the transporting belt.
Such an apparatus, taken as itself, is known from DE-38 00 817 C1.
According to the subclaims, various measures to remove the grid base are proposed, for example the grid base can be rolled up, it can be pulled out to the front or rear or it can, as is explained subsequently in the exemplary embodiment, be pushed together inside the cage, so that as a result the chickens fall through downwards onto the excrement conveyor belt.
An exemplary embodiment of the invention is explained below with reference to the drawings. In the drawings:
FIG. 1 shows entirely schematically the arrangement of a cage battery, seen transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the rows of cages,
FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of the cage battery, but now in the longitudinal axis of the rows of cages,
FIG. 3 shows on an enlarged scale the design of the grid base, including handle, and
FIG. 4 shows a diagrammatic representation of a cage section.
In the drawings, 1 denotes a cage battery which comprises the individual rows of
REFERENCES:
patent: 3978819 (1976-09-01), Lovitt
patent: 4023530 (1977-05-01), Cobb
patent: 4480588 (1984-06-01), Holladay et al.
patent: 4768465 (1988-09-01), Church
patent: 5174242 (1992-12-01), Takeuchi
Shaw Elizabeth
Swiatek Robert P.
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