Patent Application
20150083051
1. Field of Disclosure
The present invention relates generally to poultry house, and more specifically to a poultry house floor design in the area of the watering trough.
2. Background Art
Poultry farms raise domesticated birds such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese, for the purpose of harvesting meat or eggs for food. Poultry is farmed in great numbers, with chickens being the most numerous. Therefore, for convenience, reference will be made specifically to chickens hereinafter, although it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to chickens. More than 50 billion chickens are raised annually as a source of food, for both their meat and their eggs. Chickens raised for eggs are usually called layers while chickens raised for meat are often called broilers or fryers, depending on their size and suitability for various cooking methods. Many parts of a chicken are consumed as food, including their feet. Therefore, keeping chickens' feet clean, and healthy is important.
Generally, chickens are housed in chicken houses (houses), such as the example prior art chicken house shown in
However, litter floors and grated flooring both have downsides. As chicken droppings, and leaking water fall onto litter floors, these substances are simply absorbed into or are mixed with the litter. The chickens continue to walk through the effected litter, and are therefore in contact with moisture from the droppings and water. In such an environment, the chickens' feet are particularly at risk, for foot pad dermitis. This is particularly the case where watering troughs or modern drinking lines are located resulting in water leakage and additional dampness in the litter. Elevated grate floors do serve to elevate the chickens from droppings.
Accordingly, there is a need for a coop or housing with flooring that protects the chickens, and particularly their feet, from continual contact with damp environment.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a poultry house has a floor with a surface area. Litter, which may consist of wood chips or sawdust or the like, covers substantially the entire surface area of the floor. A nourishment area is a subset of the surface area of the floor. Preferably the nourishment area is the portion of the surface area of the floor above which a nourishment dispensing device resides. The nourishment dispensing device, which can include a water trough or other watering device, is preferably positioned above the floor and litter in the nourishment area. The watering devices can generally be referred to as drinkers and the troughs can be elongated or in the form of a small cup shaped vessel, generally referred to as a watering cup. The nourishment area is preferably larger than the nourishment device, to account for any splashing or sloshing that may occur in or near the nourishment device.
A platform is located in the nourishment area above the litter and floor, and below the nourishment device. The platform is preferably comprised of a grate or a series of slats, and preferably extends throughout substantially the entire nourishment area. The platform is constructed with through-holes or slits which are structured to allow droppings and water, to pass through the platform to the litter below. However, the through-holes or slits are not so large as to allow the feet of chicken or other poultry from passing there through to make contact with the wet litter below. The platform may be immediately above the litter resting atop the bed of litter, or another implementation could be slightly elevated, such as about 1 cm above the litter. The platform may alternatively be elevated off of the litter by about 5 centimeters or more.
The platform may be made of any suitable material, which is preferably waterproof and substantially impermeable to bacteria. For example, metal, plastics and/or treated wood may be used to construct the platform.
By placing the platform over only a portion of the surface area of the floor immediately above the litter, the chickens in the house are not forced to walk solely on the platform. Rather, the chickens have the option of walking on litter over most of the house. However, in the area where the litter is most likely to be wet, i.e., in the nourishment area beneath the watering trough, the chickens are raised above the wet litter by the platform. The water and droppings may still pass through the platform to the litter below, but the chickens do not have to continuously walk through the litter which is most likely to be wet and subject to contamination. The proposed implementation as described and claimed herein provides a greater economy of construction and makes it easier to retrofit existing poultry houses. Existing buildings can be utilized without the need for building a support structure for elevated slatted flooring. Service personnel will need access to the areas where the chickens reside to provide feed, water, temperature control, and ventilation as well as remove manure. If the entire area is slatted, the structure to support the service personnel can become very cumbersome and costly to support and move for repair, cleaning and removal of manure. The slat/litter combination provides benefit to the chickens while still allowing traditional methods of catching in an existing facility because the same access is provided to the service personnel with the implementation as described and claimed herein. Existing buildings can be retrofitting economically while gaining the benefit of the slatted areas and while greatly benefiting the chickens and while allowing the service personnel unencumbered access for care and harvesting of the chickens.
While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description presented herein are not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular embodiment disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.
A prior art chicken house 1 is shown in
When chickens in a prior art house 1 drink and/or splash water or other liquids from the nourishment dispensing unit 8, or evacuate onto the litter 6 in the nourishment area 10, the litter 6 in the nourishment area 10 becomes wet with water, droppings or other liquids. Such litter 6 thereby can be contaminated and/or harbor bacteria. Therefore, in order to obtain nourishment from the nourishment dispensing device 8, chickens must walk through litter 6 which is likely to be the wettest area in the house 1.
As shown in
As can be best seen in
The platform 112 may be composed of any material, although waterproof materials are preferred. Also, the platform 112 is preferably made out of a material that is resistant to microbial growth and/or impermeable to bacteria. For example, many metals and plastics would be suitable. Wood may also be used, but such wood is preferably treated so as to be water resistant and/or less permeable to bacteria. Non-suitable substances may also be coated with a suitable plastic substance. For example, the platform 112 may be a wire mesh, a slatted floor made of treated wood, a plastic panel, or a metal mesh covered in plastic. The platform 112 may also be formed in various sections, or may be a single integral platform 112.
In operation, chickens in house 100 may walk around predominantly on litter 106. However, in the area of the house 100 which is most likely to have wet litter 106—the nourishment area 108—the platform 112 is present to raise the chickens off of the litter 106. This combination of litter 106 and platform 112 keeps the chickens from encountering the wet areas of litter 106 while still allowing them the option of walking on litter 106 most of the time.
Thus, there has been shown and described several embodiments of an improved poultry house with a litter floor and a platform above the litter floor in a nourishment area of the house. As is evident from the foregoing description, certain aspects of the present invention are not limited by the particular details of the examples illustrated herein, and it is therefore contemplated that other modifications and applications, or equivalents thereof, will occur to those skilled in the art. The terms “having” and “including” and similar terms as used in the foregoing specification are used in the sense of “optional” or “may include” and not as “required”. Many changes, modifications, variations and other uses and applications of the present invention will, however, become apparent to those skilled in the art after considering this specification and the accompanying drawings. All such changes, modifications, variations and other uses and applications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention are deemed to be covered by the invention which is limited only by the claims which follow. All defined terms used in the application are intended to be given their broadest reasonable constructions consistent with the definitions provided herein. All undefined terms used in the claims are intended to be given their broadest reasonable constructions consistent with their ordinary meanings as understood by those skilled in the art unless an explicit indication to the contrary is made herein. In particular, use of the singular articles such as “a,” “the,” “said,” etc. should be read to recite one or more of the indicated elements unless a claim recites an explicit limitation to the contrary.
