In the poultry farm breeding process, many farmers use battery chicken layer cage to raise commercial chickens . But a few farmers choose free-range breeding to raise special chickens ,so that meet with market requirement. The price of eggs produced by free-range chickens is higher, of course the cost is also higher. Which one is better ?
Now we do a comparison : free-range VS battery chicken cage breeding farms.
Cage Chicken
Laying hen cage is an intensive management method of modern chicken farms. It is the most popular breeding method at present. It is used by almost all large, medium and small-scale farms. Due to the modern breeding of high-yielding layers, it is suitable for intensive production .
Therefore chicken cage is the best choice for laying hens. The cage has three tier and four tier, and the placement methods mainly include full overlap H type cage, , A type cage,half A type cage etc.
chicken manure falls directly into the manure tank or manure belt. Feeding with feed trough, water line with nipple drinker or water trough.
Cage chicken advantages:
- Occupy small land and space, concentrated feeding and high feeding density. The same chicken house area can breed more chickens, saving land and labor. The facts have proved that the number of chickens per square meter of construction area is more than three times that of floorbreeding. The space of the chicken house can be fully utilized for centralized feeding, which saves labor and improves the utilization rate of the chicken house.
- Less feed consumption. Limiting caged chicken activities can save feed consumption. The chickens is feed average, waste less feed, clean egg shells, lower breakage rates, and lower breeding costs.
- Improve labor efficiency. The number of chickens managed per cage in laying hens is several times that of free-range chickens. Special machinery can be used for chicken feeding and manure removal, which greatly improves labor productivity.
- Cage-laying hens are good for preventing disease, reducing diseases, and being conducive to the health of chickens. The biggest advantages of cage-raising chickens are that the chicken body is separated from manure dung, the feed is hygienic, and the mortality rate of caged chickens is low.
Disadvantages of caged chicken:
- High investment and one-time investment.
- The cage and laying hens have higher requirements on feed and environment.
- There are some laying hen syndromes, such as caged laying hen fatigue syndrome, fatty liver syndrome, panic disorder.
- The living space of laying hens is small and the activities are restricted.
Free range chicken breeding
Laying hen free-range refers to adopting the form of grazing, grazing hens into nature, and using large-scale mountains, woodlands, grasslands, orchards and other resources to develop large-scale laying hen breeding. Large-scale production is achieved through scientific feeding management and safety and health measures, so that laying hens can reach the standards of pollution-free food and even green food.
At the same time, chicken manure can also improve soil fertility .By raising chickens to control plant pests and weeds, reducing the use of eradicating drugs. This is a new type of ecological industry combining agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry.
Free range chicken advantages:
- Eggs are expensive, free-range eggs have good taste and rich flavor, and eggs are very popular. Eggs are more than twice as expensive as eggs in cages.
- Ecological and environmental protection, laying hens eat insects, reduce pests in woodlands and grasslands, protect trees and crops from pests, and reduce the use of pesticides. Chicken manure directly fertilizes the soil and turns waste into treasure.
- Reduce breeding costs and improve chicken breeding benefits. The investment in the hen house and feed was much lower than that in the house.
Disadvantages of free range chicken:
- The scale is not large. Due to the environmental conditions and management capabilities of the stocking site, the size of each batch of chickens cannot be too large, and the difficulty of large-scale management also increases.
- Low egg production rate and poor egg breed. Even the finest management of free-rangehens is extensive management, so the egg production rate is low and unstable, and the quality of eggs will also decline.
- The disease is not easy to control. Chicken farms areeasyto get respiratory diseases and parasitic diseases, especially coccidiosis. There are chicken pox and visceral Marek’s disease.
From the comparison above , we can know that free-range chicken breeding only suit for small family farm , low economic benefits. Chicken cage commercial farming can large scale and more scientific , and be the world poultry farm develop trends.
For 95% of poultry farms in this world , chicken cage breeding chickens is a good choice , this can let poultry farmer benefits more from poultry farming , and let poultry farm be a commercial business.