Animal husbandry – Confining or housing – Animal display or open work enclosure
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-13
2001-09-18
Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3644)
Animal husbandry
Confining or housing
Animal display or open work enclosure
C119S412000, C119S472000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289848
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to animal husbandry, and in particular to the housing and raising of fowl.
2. The Prior Art
Most fowl raised for human consumption, e.g., chickens and turkeys, as well as breeders for the production of chicks, are housed in large enclosures, commonly called poultry houses. These poultry houses normally include outer walls and a roof, and either solid flooring, slatted flooring, or combinations thereof. Nesting boxes, perches and feeding devices are often, although not always, located within these poultry houses. On the other hand, some fowl are raised in outdoor areas that are enclosed only with fencing (free-range fowl).
Unfortunately, instead of spreading out in a distributed manner throughout a poultry house or within an enclosed outdoor area, fowl tend to congregate near the limiting walls, leaving other interior areas sparsely populated. This creates many problems:
When birds are crowded together and their resting and active cycles are not synchronized, and resting birds will be frequently disturbed by active birds. This will cause psychological stress in the birds attempting to rest, resulting in inadequate sleep and possible immunosuppression and increased susceptibility to disease.
When crowded together, birds will be at increased risk of stepping on one another, causing skin scratches. This can lead to infection, which in turn can lead to downgrading or condemnation of the carcasses due to cellulitis, and sometimes death of the birds.
Birds congregating at the periphery of the poultry house will result not only in inefficient use of available space, but in high concentration of droppings and reduced litter quality in these areas. Wet and caked litter with high nitrogen content from those droppings will cause skin lesions, especially on heavy poultry reared for meat (broiler chickens, turkeys). Skin lesions include breast blister and hock burns. These lesions must be trimmed at the processing plant, resulting in downgrading and loss of product.
In hot weather, birds that are crowded together around the periphery of the poultry house will have difficulty in thermoregulating, resulting in discomfort, physiological stress response, immunosuppression (increased susceptibility to disease), reduced feed intake, reduced growth ratio (in young birds), reduced egg production (adult females), and death in severe situations.
Birds located in the less populated areas of the poultry house, and lacking nearby cover, are at increased risk of injury from feather-pecking birds, cannibalistic birds and aggressive birds. Such birds are also at increased risk of predation by arial and ground predators. They are less likely to go outside and consume green forage.
Lack of hiding places in a poultry house for breeding fowl causes females to be afraid to enter areas with high concentrations of males. The females who do enter these areas are mated in a rough manner by the large number of competing males. The females become injured by scratches and pecks from the males, possibly causing death. The females are subsequently nervous and less likely to enter the male areas for mating.
If hysteria in the birds occurs, e.g., due to the occurrence of sudden noises or other unusual stimuli, a majority of the birds will pack together at an end wall of the poultry house and large numbers will die from asphyxiation.
A method of causing fowl such as chickens, turkeys, hens and breeders to relocate within a poultry house, or in an outdoor enclosure, and in particular a method of causing fowl to move away from the periphery of a poultry enclosure, and inwardly thereof, such that the birds will be more evenly distributed throughout the poultry enclosure, thus reducing the consequences of nervousness and even hysteria in the birds, is desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
We have discovered that it is possible to cause fowl to distribute themselves more evenly within an enclosure, whether covered or not, by positioning static attraction devices throughout the enclosure, these attraction devices including a vertically oriented mesh screen. We have found that fowl, and in particular chickens, will naturally migrate towards these attraction devices and away from the outer walls of the enclosure.
These fowl attraction devices provide vertical cover that instills a sense of security (safety) in the birds. They become less fearful and less likely to be injured or killed by other birds. They become more evenly distributed within the house (or free range areas), resulting in dilution of the manure over a greater area, less damage to vegetation in free range areas, improved litter and air quality in the house, and less risk of heat stress during hot weather. Breeding females readily join males in areas with vertical cover, resulting in reduced competition among males, proper expression of courtship behavior by males towards females, a reduced risk of scratching and injury of females during copulation, reduced fearfulness in females, and increased numbers of fertile eggs. When an area of a poultry house that has previously been closed to the birds is opened up, placement of fowl attraction devices in the new area will increase the speed at which the birds spread out into the new area (e.g., when broiler chickens are given access to the whole house after being confined to a smaller area for brooding, when turkeys are moved from a brooding area to a growing area, when birds are given access to a free range area for the first time). Reduced crowding has the benefits described above.
The inventive fowl attraction devices are porous for improved ventilation, they provide partial cover but still allow birds to monitor events on the other side when close to the cover, they are short in length so that they do not substantially block movement of birds (resulting in reduced access to feeders and drinkers and therefore, reduced productivity), they are provided in sufficient numbers to produce a more even distribution of birds throughout the house, and they are preferably constructed of lightweight, easily sanitizable, durable (birds cannot remove pieces of the panels by pecking or scratching), non-toxic and smooth materials (no splinters or sharp edges) for ease of raising or removal prior to catching and removal of birds from the house, ease of cleaning and sanitizing before the next flock, and avoidance of harm to birds, poultry caretakers and consumers of poultry products.
The invention will be better understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, taken in conjunction with the following discussion.
REFERENCES:
patent: 429196 (1890-06-01), Leonard
patent: 862659 (1907-08-01), Richards
patent: 1185578 (1916-05-01), Barnes
patent: 1227401 (1917-05-01), Drake
patent: 1238349 (1917-08-01), Shreve
patent: 1772814 (1930-08-01), Laycock
patent: 1802579 (1931-04-01), Scott
patent: 2346001 (1944-04-01), Bate
patent: 4648351 (1987-03-01), Lanner et al.
patent: 5233939 (1993-08-01), Randolph
Estevez Immaculada
Newberry Ruth C.
Abbott Yvonne R.
Dykema Gossett PLLC
Jordan Charles T.
University of Maryland
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