How to Ensure a Safe, Healthy, and Nutritious Egg Supply?
Safer and nutritious eggs come from healthy laying hens. So, how to produce and supply safer, healthier, and nutritious eggs has become an important goal for global layer producers.
The Limitations of Traditional Cage Systems
Traditional multi-tier layer cage systems solve the problem of direct contact between chickens and manure. But there are certain limitations. Especially in traditional cage systems, the activity of hens is restricted, and they cannot lay eggs properly. This is extremely cruel to the animals and does not meet modern animal welfare standards. With the promotion of welfare cage-free systems in EU countries, egg-laying hen welfare standards have become an important reference for global egg production.
In recent years, EU countries have adopted a high proportion of cage-free egg production systems. However, there is a certain proportion of solid ground and litter. The presence of solid ground leads to direct contact between chickens and chicken manure. This increases the risk of Coccidiosis, and the presence of floor eggs raises labor costs for egg collection.
A New Multi-Tiered Cage-Free Egg Production System
After more than 10 years, the team of China Agricultural University carried out joint research and product development and developed a new multi-tier cage free system with Chinese characteristics. This system has five major innovations:
- Multi-tiers and perches: free activity
- Dust bath: natural behavior
- Egg-collecting line for each tier: no floor eggs
- Manure belt for each tier: manure-free and good air quality
- Automatic mesh door: easy vaccination
Enhancing Egg Quality and Production Efficiency
The model is designed to optimize sand bath equipment for laying hens, allowing them to engage in natural behaviors without increasing dust concentration in the house. Notably, both the strength of the egg shell and the content of Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids have been significantly improved. Research shows that eggshell strength has increased by 12.04%. Compared with traditional cage systems, this model shows better laying rate and bone mineral density.
The cage-free egg production systems, through an automated management system, greatly improve the operational efficiency of the farm. This reduces manual intervention and labor costs. The multi-tier manure belt system ensures that manure does not touch the ground and is cleared daily, preventing direct contact between the chickens and the manure.
An Efficient and Healthy Egg Production Model
The developed welfare high-efficiency multi-tier cage-free system allows chickens to fully express natural behaviors such as wing expansion, feathering, and dust bathing, thus liberating their nature freely. The chickens’ health status is improved, and they are more energetic and active.
Multi-tier manure belts prevent manure from touching the ground, ensuring daily manure cleaning and preventing direct contact with manure. When chicken catching operations are needed, the mesh door can be automatically opened and closed, significantly improving the efficiency of chicken catching and reducing immune stress.
The flavor of eggs is well-received by customers. At present, this multi-tier cage free egg production system has been gradually applied in China, including regions like Xinjiang, Beijing, Hebei, Shandong, Tibet, Sichuan, and Yunnan.
