Animal husbandry – Bird nest or nest appliance – Egg trap
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-12
2002-05-28
Swiatek, Robert P. (Department: 3643)
Animal husbandry
Bird nest or nest appliance
Egg trap
C119S335000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06394031
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a nest arrangement for poultry comprising at least one housing with walls having at least one passage opening for the poultry. The housing has at least one floor. There is a transporting device for transporting off the laid eggs, which is guided along an edge of the housing floor. The floor is sloped downwards toward the transporting device.
2. The Prior Art
Laying nest arrangements are usually installed in large industrial-type henhouses, so that the eggs laid by the hens can be collected and transported off in an industrial manner. Within the housing of the laying nest arrangement, there is a location for the poultry for laying the eggs. The housing forms a closed room in which the laying hens can enter through at least one passage opening in one of the walls of the housing. Eggs laid on the floor of the housing roll down the floor because of their shape and the incline of the floor. The eggs then roll into the transporting device for removing the eggs, because the floor of the housing is sloped downwards toward the transporting device. The transporting device is, for example a conveyor belt, which receives the eggs rolling down the floor of the housing, and transports such eggs away from the laying nest arrangement.
The floor of the housing is frequently soiled by excrement, residues of fodder and feathers and the like, so that if the downward slope of the housing floor is not steep enough, eggs are retained on the floor of the housing due to the uneven surface as a result of the dirt on the floor. So that eggs can overcome uneven spots via gravity and roll down and onto the transporting device, a steeper downward inclination of the floor is adjusted with known laying nest arrangements. This has the drawback that the eggs roll down at a higher speed because of the steeper downward slope of the housing floor. This occurs especially when the rolling path is relatively long because of a wide or deep housing floor.
Thus, eggs rolling down the floor roll onto the transporting device at high speed and collide there with obstructions such as a lateral limitation of a conveyor belt, or eggs already lying on the conveyor belt. The shocks resulting from such collisions exert forces on the egg shells, which regularly leads to hair fissures in the shells and frequently even to crushing of the shells. Damaged eggs cannot be utilized and cannot be sold to the food trade because of their reduced durability. This results in a high rejection rate in the production of eggs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a laying nest arrangement of the type specified above that assures a reduction of the rejection rate.
This and other objects are accomplished according to the invention by a laying nest arrangement in which the floor of the housing consists of at least two floor plates that can be swiveled against each other about a swiveling axis that is aligned in parallel with the longitudinal expanse of the transporting device and extending in the plane of the floor of the housing. There is at least one swiveling element that effects a separate swinging movement of each floor plate.
In the laying nest arrangement as defined by the invention, the floor of the housing is not designed in the form of one piece, but it is divided into sections formed by floor plates. For example, the housing floor can be divided in two floor plates that are disposed in one plane to form the entire floor of the housing. Both floor plates can be swiveled against each other, i.e., one floor plate can be swiveled versus the other floor plate. The swiveling axis is disposed in the plane of the floor of the housing. This assures that a coherent housing floor continues to be formed even when the floor plates are swung against each other. The housing floor may consist of two sections with different downward inclinations or sloped positions in relation to the transporting device.
When one floor plate is swiveled versus the other, it has a different angle of inclination with respect to the environment of the housing floor, in particular with respect to the transporting device. In particular, the inclination can be steeper, so that any eggs that are already stuck on the floor plate roll off again. The other floor plate, on the other hand, may have a lesser inclination. The eggs can roll from the floor plate with the greater downward inclination onto the floor plate with the lesser downward inclination, and are not accelerated further, as it is the case with a housing floor with a greater inclination all the way through. This quasi-braking of the eggs is caused by the friction of the eggs on the floor plate, the rolling resistance, which is counteracted by a lower force of forward motion because of the lower friction. This prevents the eggs rolling down from attaining a speed that, in the event of collision with obstructions or other eggs, could lead to mechanical damage to their shells.
Once the eggs have rolled from the floor plate with the greater inclination onto the other floor plate with the lesser inclination, the latter floor plate can also be set to a steeper slope independently of the other floor plate, using a swiveling element. This means that the angle of inclination of the latter floor plate is increased. However, this increase does not take place simultaneously with the increase of the angle of inclination of the first floor plate, but subsequently.
Therefore, the laying nest arrangement as defined by the invention has a housing floor that does not have a uniform downward slope. The inclination of the floor plates is increased separately in the direction of the transporting device. The inclinations are preferably increased in a time sequence, so that eggs rolling down are rolling like on a wave, i.e., the eggs roll from a floor plate with a steeper inclination onto the next-following floor plate with a lower inclination, whereupon the inclination of the latter floor plate is increased, so that an egg cannot remain lying on the latter floor plate and will continue to roll down. Due to the lower inclinations of the floor plates onto which the eggs roll first, the eggs are slowed down, so that damage to the eggs is clearly reduced and the rejection rate is consequently reduced as well.
Because of the alignment of the swiveling axis between the floor plates parallel with the longitudinal expanse of the transporting device, the individual floor plates can be set to an angle of inclination in a sequence that assures that the eggs are carefully guided to the transporting device. For this purpose, the floor plate that is farthest removed from the transporting device is set to a steeper angle first. As an alternative, this floor plate may be permanently set to a steeper inclination. The eggs can then roll from this floor plate onto a floor plate that is closer to the transporting device. By continuously setting the floor plate, and, if need be, additional floor plates to increasingly steeper angles upwards, the eggs can finally roll down to the transporting device because they are always slowed down whenever they seem to reach an excessively high roll-off speed.
Because of the controlled roll-off movements of the eggs, it is possible to produce a housing floor with a larger width, i.e. with a greater depth in the direction of the transporting device. With known laying nest arrangements, a greater width would cause the eggs to reach an excessively high speed over the long roll-off distance. With the laying nest arrangement as defined by the invention, the eggs are prevented from reaching a high speed because they are slowed down by the different angles of inclination of the floor plates. With a greater width, however, it is possible to accommodate a greater number of laying hens in the laying nest arrangement, which offers the substantial advantage that the egg production can be increased.
The separate floor plates of the housing floor can be freely arranged next to each other in one plane. However, it is a
Big Ditchman International GmbH
Collard & Roe P.C.
Swiatek Robert P.
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