GB2170089A

GB2170089A - Battery cage feeder

Info

Publication number: GB2170089A
Application number: GB08601479A
Authority: GB
Inventors: George Herbert William Moore
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1985-01-24
Filing date: 1986-01-22
Publication date: 1986-07-30
Also published as: GB8501792D0; GB8601479D0

Abstract

The invention provides a battery cage feeder of the kind wherein a device travels along the front of a tier of battery cages, depositing feedstuff in a feeding trough for the birds. The feeder comprises a hopper into the top of which the feedstuff is charged, and around the bottom end of the hopper is a floating shoe which runs in the trough and distributes the feedstuff therein. The shoe is not connected to the hopper otherwise than being in abutting contact therewith. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Battery cage feeder This invention relates to battery cage feeders, being a device for the supply of feedstuff to poultry contained in battery cages.

As is know, battery cage poultry keeping typically involves the use of a plurality of tiers of cages arranged one on top of the other and in which are contained birds. The cage floors are sloped downwardly towards the fronts of the cages, so that when the birds lay eggs, the eggs will roll downwardly under the front of the cage, and into a collecting gutter. Outside and along the front of each cage towards the bottom thereof is a feeding trough for the birds, and in simple arrangements, the battery cage farmer simply distributes the bird feedstuff into each trough as evenly as he can, simply using his hands and his judgement.

With a greater demand for efficiency of feeding, there have been provided automatic feeding devices comprising hoppers which travel along the fronts of the cages, one for each tier, distributing feedstuff in a metered fashion into the bottom of the feeding trough.

The present invention is such a feeder, but does I believe have a number of particularly advantageous features of a novel character.

The feeder according to my invention comprises a hopper having a top end through which the feedstuff is charged into the hopper, and a bottom end from which the feedstuff discharges to enable it to be placed in the trough, the hopper being adapted to be moved along the front of a tier of cages, and also including a distribution shoe located at the bottom outlet end of the hopper, which travels with the hopper along the front of the tier of cages and runs in the trough into which the feedstuff is to be distributed, said shoe being a floating shoe which rides on the trough so that an edge by which the quantity of feedstuff discharged into the trough is metered, will remain at a fixed height above the trough base, thereby ensuring a deposit of an even layer of feedstuff.The said metering edge may be adjustable vertically in order to adjust the thickness of the layer of feedstuff which is deposited in the trough at each feeding pass of the hopper.

The shoe may be wheeled in order to make its passage along the trough as frictionless as possible.

The shoe may comprise a rectangular sheet metal structure provided with wheels, the shoe being of a width adapted to that of the trough, and it may be open top and bottom, the top being for receiving the bottom end of the hopper, and the bottom being open towards the base of the trough.

The said metering edge may be at one end of the shoe, whilst at the other end there may be a distributing edge which is located closer to the base of the trough than the metering edge.

In distributing the feedstuff therefore, the shoe is moved in a direction so that the distributing edge is the leading edge and the feedstuff trails out into the trough in an even layer out of the trailing, metering edge. The distributing edge will distribute any feedstuff remaining in the trough, for example the residual feedstuff which arises in the event of one or more of the cages containing a dead bird.

Typically, feedstuff is charged into the hopper when it is at one end of the tier of cages, and then the hopper is moved along the front of the tier causing the feedstuff to be deposited as explained above. The hopper remains at the said other end of the tier until the feedstuff has been consumed, and then it is returned to the initial position for further charging and for further depositing of feedstuff in the trough for the next feed. In each pass of the hopper, the distributing edge operates to distribute residual feedstuff or to displace it to one or other end of the trough.

It is desirable that only sufficient feedstuff should be charged into the hopper to ensure that there is neither too much nor too little feedstuff distributed to the birds, and also to ensure that when the hopper reaches the end of a feeding pass, there will only be a handful of feedstuff left in the hopper.

Measuring of the discharging of feedstuff into the hopper may be achieved by means of an adjustable feeding chute which projects into the hopper. The chute is closed in that it is in the form of a tube, but the top end is open to receive the feedstuff, and the bottom end is also open to allow the feedstuff to fall into the hopper. The effective length of the chute may be adjustable by forming it in telescoping parts which can be locked in any position to which they are telescoped. The bottom edge of the chute will form a block preventing further feeding of the feedstuff into the hopper more than a certain quantity, that quantity can be varied by adjusting the effective length of the feeding chute.When feedstuff is charged into the chute, and it will collect at the bottom of the hopper until the level rises and contacts the bottom end of the chute thereby preventing further charging of the feedstuff into the hopper, and the farmer simply then carries on filling the feed chute until it is filled to the top edge whereby he will know that he has made available a pre-determined quantity of feedstuff to be distributed during the feed pass of the hopper.

The provision of a floating shoe provides a considerable advantage, because the distance from the bottom of the hopper to the base of the feed trough does in fact vary throughout the length of the feed pass due to manufacturing tolerances, but such variations are accounted for by making the shoe float in relation to the hopper bottom, as the shoe will maintain the metering edge at a fixed distance from the base of the trough.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way if example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing wherein: Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a single feeder according to the invention when in operative position in relation to a battery cage feed trough; and Figure 2 is a side view of a multi-tier feeder arrangement.

It is to be noted that a feeder according to the invention can be used in relation to a feed trough which is for any type of animal or bird which is supplied with feedstuff by passing a feeder thereover.

Referrring to Figure 1 of the drawings, the feeder shown comprises a hopper 10 having a flat rear face 12 which lies at a slight angle to the fronts of the tiers of cages, two end plates 16, 18, which are generally triangular as shown except for a short parallel side extensions 16a, 18a, and a front plate 19 which is bent to join the front edges of the two plates 16, 18. The hopper is therefore of tapering cross section leading from a wide open top 20, to a narrow slot-like open bottom 22.

Projecting into the hopper is a chute 24 of narrow rectangular cross section, made up of telescopically interfitting tubes 26, 28, which can be telescoped to any adjusted position, and then fixed in that position. The chute is used for feeding feedstuff into the hopper 10, and the quantity of feedstuff fed into the hopper can be controlled by telescoping of the said tubes 26, 28 in that the lower edge 30 of the lower tube forms a measuring device. When the lower edge 30 is positioned as required, the feedstuff is fed into the hopper through the chute 24, the feedstuff accumulates in the hopper 10 until the level thereof reaches the said bottom edge 30 at which time the feedstuff will accumulate in the chute until it reaches the top edge of the chute.This means that a pre-determined quantity of feedstuff is contained in the hopper 10 and chute 24 ready for distribution into a trough 34 over which the hopper is located and lengthwise of which the hopper is adapted to be moved.

The lower end of the hopper engages in a metering shoe 36 of the rectangular form shown having sides 38, 40 and ends 42 and 44. End 42 is a metering end, whilst end 44 is a distribution end. The metering end 42 has a lower edge 46 which forms a metering edge for the distribution of feedstuff into the trough 34, and is located at a predetermined but adjustable distance above the base 48 of the trough. The distributing end also has a lower edge 50 which forms a distributing edge for feedstuff which remains in the trough after a pass of the hopper along the front of the cages has been made to deposit a metered quantity of feedstuff in front of each cage, and after the feedstuff or the majority of it has been eaten by the birds.

The distribution edge height above the trough can also be adjusted.

The shoe runs in the trough by virtue of having running wheels 51 which are sharp edged polypropylene wheels, which may be arranged to run in wheel guides if required, but it has been found that if they engage the trough in the regions of the bends 52 and 54 in the trough, the shoe will remain stably in the correct position as it moves along the trough during movement of the hopper.

The shoe floats relative to the hopper in that it is not connected thereto, and the feeding of the shoe is achieved simply by abutting connection with the hopper resulting from the overlapping of the hopper and shoe walls.

The operation of the device is quite simple in that the hopper is located at one end of the tier of cages and is charged with feedstuff as described, after appropriate positioning of the bottom tube 28 of the chute, and after appropriate positioning of the metering and distributing edges of the shoe.

The hopper is now driven along the front of the tier which effects distribution of the feedstuff in the cages to the desired level leaving, at the end of the feeding pass, about a handful of feedstuff in the hopper. The distributing edge distributes any residual feedstuff in the trough which remains after the previous supply of feedstuff. The hopper is returned after the birds have fed, the distribution edge returning in a thin band any residual feedstuff in the hopper to the first mentioned end of the trough.

Referring to Figure 2, this shows an adaptation of the invention for a multi-tier arrangement, and in Figure 2 a three tier arrangement is shown with three hoppers 100A, 100B and 100C. The lowermost hopper 100 is the same as that already described with reference to Figure 1, but the upper hoppers have an additional feed leg 102 through which the feedstuff may pass to fill the hopper underneath so that by filling from a single top feed auger pipe 104, all hoppers can be filled to the correct level. Each hopper has the floating shoe arrangement and as already described in relation to Figure 1 and the feed chute 106A, B and C of the respective hoppers is telescopic in the same position of chute 24 of Figure 1.The top feed auger pipe 104 has its outlet connected to feed tube 198 containing a cut-off slide 108 containing valve 110 and there may be an automatic switch-offf device controlling the feed of the feedstuff when all hoppers have been filled to the correct level.

The hoppers are shown in Figure 2 as being full of feedstuff, the feed stuff levels of the hoppers being indicated by references 108A, 108B and 108C. The associated battery cage tiers are also shown in Figure 2 and are indicated by references 120A, B and C.

In operation, to fill the hoppers 100A-C the telescopic chutes are set at the required position, and then the auger in tube 104 is driven, the valve 110 being open. Feedstuff is delivered by the auger first to hopper 100A which falls to the level in the upper end of leg 102 thereof, then the feedstuff flows into hopper 100B and either accumulates therein or passes to hopper 100C. Assuming that the feedstuff passes to hopper 100C it accumulates therein until it reaches level 108C when the chute 100C starts to fill. When chute 106C is full, hopper 100B fills to level 108B, then the chute 106B starts to fill. When chute 106B is full, filling of hopper 100A continues until level 108A is reached when chute 106A and housing 108 starts to fill. When all hoppers have been thus filled feeding ceases automatically as described above.

Claims

1. A feeded or a battery cage system compris ing a hopper having a top end through which the feedstuff is charged into the hopper, and a bottom end from which the feedstuff discharges to enable it to be placed in the trough, the hopper being adapted to be moved along the front of a tier of cages, and also including a distribution shoe located at the bottom outlet end of the hopper, which travels with the hopper along the front of the tier of cages and runs in the trough into which the feedstuff is to be distributed, said shoe being a floating shoe which rides on the trough so that an edge by which the quantity of feedstuff discharged into the trough is metered, will remain at a fixed height above the trough base, thereby ensuring a deposit of an even layer of feedstuff.

2. A feeder according to Claim 1 wherein metering edge may be adjustable vertically in order to adjust the thickness of the layer of feedstuff which is deposited in the trough at each feeding pass of the hopper.

3. A feeder according to Claim 1 and 2, wherein the shoe is wheeled in order to make its passage along the trough as frictionless as possible.

4. A feeder according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the shoe comprises a rectangular sheet metal structure provided with wheels, the shoe being of a width adapted to that of the trough.

5. A feeder according to Claim 4, wherein the shoe is open top and bottom, the top being for receiving the bottom end of the hopper, and the bottom being open towards the base of the trough.

The said metering edge may be at one end of the shoe, whilst at the other end there may be a distributing edge which is located closer to the base of the trough then the metering edge.

6. A feeder according to Claim 4 or 5 wherein the metering edge is at one end of the shoe, whilst at the other end there is a distributing edge which is located closer to the base of the trough than the metering edge.

7. A feeder according to any preceding claim including a feeding chute which projects into the hopper and by which feedstuff may be fed into the hopper.

8. A feeder according to Claim 7 wherein the chute is in the form of a tube, the effective length of which may be adjusted.

9. A feeder according to Claim 8 wherein the chute is in telescopic parts which can be locked in any position to which they are telescoped.

10. A feeder substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.

11. A battery cage system including at least one tier of cages provided with a feeder according to any preceding claim.

12. A battery cage system according to Claim 11, including a plurality of tiers of cages each with one of said feeders, and wherein the feeders are arranged in superimposed relationship, and each feeder which is located above another has a hopper with a distribution leg by which feedstuff may spill from the upper hopper to the lower hopper, such distribution legs also forming a feeding chute of the telescopic parts.

13. A battery cage system according to Claim 12 an including a feeder tube containing an auger for feeding the feedstuff to the topmost feeder.

14. A battery cage system according to Claim 13, wherein the feed auger is associated with a control valve controlling the flow of feedstuff to the top hopper, and automatic control means for shutting off the valve when all hopper have been filled.

15. A battery cage system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings.