Cage, floor, aviary: compare to choose, with your own figures
'Cages are better', 'the floor is simpler', 'the aviary is the future': we hear all three, and none is true for everyone. The choice of housing system is made with units (square metres, hours of work, percentages of dirty eggs, kilos of manure, litres of water), not with opinions. This lesson describes the three systems as they are practised in Côte d'Ivoire, compares them point by point for the same flock of 2,000 layers, and gives the grid in which the entrepreneur puts his own amounts to decide.
14 min read · 5-question quiz at the end
By Abdul Hussein ChoumanFounder of NEXTEKCI · Agnibilékrou hatchery since 2006This lesson is part of Laying hens, expert level specialisation. It opens to every registered student, from free registration. Levels 1 to 5 and the tracks remain readable by everyone.
'Cages are better', 'the floor is simpler', 'the aviary is the future': we hear all three, and none is true for everyone. The choice of housing system is made with units (square metres, hours of work, percentages of dirty eggs, kilos of manure, litres of water), not with opinions. This lesson describes the three systems as they are practised in Côte d'Ivoire, compares them point by point for the same flock of 2,000 layers, and gives the grid in which the entrepreneur puts his own amounts to decide.
- ✓Describe the three systems (cage, floor, aviary) with their area and equipment benchmarks
- ✓Compare the systems in technical units for the same flock: area, labour, dirty and floor eggs, manure, water, heat
- ✓Build the decision grid in which the entrepreneur puts his own amounts
- ✓Choose the system that suits his house, his labour and his market, and avoid installation mistakes
- Three systems, three ways of housing the same hen
- The same flock in the three systems: 2,000 layers
- Comparing in units: what each system does to the flock's figures
- The decision grid: your own figures
- Choosing and installing without mistakes
- Going further
- •Three systems: cage (groups in wire compartments, rolling egg), floor (litter, nests, perches), aviary (floor + open platforms); we compare in units, not opinions.
- •For 2,000 hens: cage ≈ 160 to 200 m² of house and 2 to 3 h a day; floor = 400 m² (about 5 per m²) and 4 to 6 h; aviary ≈ 200 m² and 5 to 7 h with pullets reared to climb.
- •Each system moves the problem: cage = perfect equipment and tier heat; floor = floor eggs and litter; aviary = pullet rearing and reading the flock.
- •The decision grid counts in quantities (m², hours, kg, saleable eggs, cull hens, manure); the entrepreneur puts in his amounts and decides; three questions before the grid: area, team, customer.
- •You do not change system during a flock; the aviary demands pullets reared with perches from 3 weeks; a second-hand cage is inspected slope by slope.