GB801139A - Improvements in batteries for housing livestock, particularly poultry - Google Patents

Abstract

801,139. Poultry houses. SHEPHERD & SONS, Ltd., J. and SHEPHERD, W. April 30, 1956 [April 28, 1955], No. 12241/55. Class 5(2). In a battery for livestock, in particular poultry, the cages are built of readily removable members so as to facilitate the conversion of the battery or the variation of the capacities of the cages in accordance with the purposes for which the battery is required, e.g. for stock breeding and rearing, or for laying purposes. The battery comprises a skeleton framework of uprights 10, longitudinal frame members 11 and tie rods 12 as illustrated in Fig. 1 upon which rows of cages are arranged back to back and superimposed in tiers. The framework is divided into sections by panels 18 of sheet metal or reticulate form extending between and secured to opposite uprights 10, and the following description will be confined to one row of cages extending between two such panels 18. Removably mounted in holes or mesh openings at the midwidth of the said panels 18 are extensions 16a of a further panel 16 of sheet metal as reticulate form which extends across a complete section and forms the backs of the row of cages therein. The front panel 15, comprising horizontally spaced vertical rods, is mounted on the framework by hooks 15a engaging, in the case of the top tier, holes in the top longitudinal frame member 11a, or in the case of lower tiers, a rod 21, Fig. 5, extending between the uprights 10, two horizontal rods at the bottom of the panel being engaged in holes in the uprights 10 and a feeding trough 22 being suspended from one of the said horizontal rods. Cage-dividing panels 14 are adjustably located in the structure by means of extensions 14a and 14b engaging holes or mesh openings in the back panels 16 and a forwardly extended eye 14c secured to the front panel 15. The floor panel 17 has its rearward extension 17b hooked over the bottom rod of the back panel 16 and is supported at the front by the adjacent longitudinal frame member 11. The floor may be horizontal instead of being inclined. The structure may have incorporated in it a "cafeteria" feeding system as described in Specification 714,268, droppings clearing arrangements as described in Specifications 652,468 or 714,288, and part of it may be adapted to incorporate a brooder with adjustable floors as described in Specification 685,994.