Nest boxes for Free range egg farming
Chicken Farm Equipment...



Posted on August 21, 2011 by Admin

Nest boxes for Free range egg farming

When you are doing free range egg farming or organic egg production you will not be able to use layer cages – you will need to use nest boxes for the hens to lay eggs in.

nest boxes for free range egg farming

24 hole nest box

Nest boxes are equally effective as nest boxes, also allowing the easy collection of chicken eggs. Nest boxes can be used in small chicken houses or large poultry houses. Large poultry companies that produce day old chicks use nest boxes in the layer breeder houses.

Nest boxes used in free range egg farming and breeder houses come in various sizes – the egg boxes, or layer boxes for egg laying come with different amounts of “holes” this is where the hens lay the eggs. In an intensive chicken house and a free range poultry house you can have up to 8 hens per hole. The cost of nest boxes changes with the steel price – as does the price of layer cages and battery cages.

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Layer cages or Nest boxes?

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Admin

What is better layer cages or nest boxes? Depends what you wish to achieve. If you have no qualms about the way you farm your chickens then layer cages or battery cages will be the method to use – if you have a conscience or want to do free range eggs or organic chicken farming then you will have to use nest boxes. Both methods give excellent results – although nest boxes are a bit more work.

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Organics South Africa – chicken farming

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Admin

Chicken farming in South Africa is mostly intensive poultry farming. Organics in South Africa is not a big thing – although it is growing in popularity as the consumer wakes up to the cruel practices used in poultry farming.

Broiler farming is mostly done in closed houses – many of them closed environment houses. Up to 40 000 broiler chickens are kept in a poultry house that cram 15 broilers per square meter. The chickens are fed with automatic feeding systems, food comes from a silo and then fed to chain feeders or pan feeding systems. The water is supplied to the house from a header tank and the chickens drink from nipple drinkers or bell drinkers.

Layer farming – the production of eggs, works in a similar fashion. Lots of laying chickens in a small place – usually kept in layer cages. Although this form of farming is legal in South Africa – it is banned in the EU countries.

Organic farming requires the farm and the supply chain (feed etc) all conform with Organic practices. This for of farming requires space – lots of it – the chickens need to free range and the farm needs to produce a percentage of food on the farm.

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