Laying hen egg quality under battery cage system and deep litter poultry systems

Abstract

Poultry housing system is an external environment that greatly influences the laying hen performance either by quality or quantity of the egg. The study was aimed at comparing the performance of Red Rhode Island Breed (RRIB) laying birds under both the battery cage and the deep litter system. Most farmers especially in the developing world or countries have no baseline information regarding the performance of the systems hence the concept of Cost Benefit Ratio, there is difficulty in decision making by the farmers about either systems. The study was conducted from Mukono district on selected poultry farmers and it employed a complete randomized block design (CRBD) with 2 blocks (H.S)*3 treatment (Treated thrice) by the production age of the birds*Replicated 5 times=30 number of eggs picked. The methods of collecting data used were observation and questionnaires. The data was collected on number of eggs produced from different production egg shapes and size of the egg. Most farmers pointed out that 90% of the eggs in the deep litter system where of good quality at all eggs ages of production, 95% of the eggs in the battery cage system were of good quality at all ages of production and 60% of the eggs were of good quality at the start of the laying cycle (16 weeks) it increased to 90% at the age of 32 weeks and at the age of 52weeks the good quality eggs decreased to 50%. It is therefore recommended that further more research should be done on both the battery cage system and the deep litter system using farms with large flocks in increase the on the production of good quality of eggs in the developing countries.