Abstract
An investigation was made of the effects of cage size and housing density on production of SPF chickens kept in pen cages. Unit pen cage (80×80×80cm) and large sized cage which was coupled 3 unit pen cages (240×80×80cm) were used. The SPF cockerels and pullets of 12 weeks of age were housed in the cages at various housing densities. In the unit cage, 1 or 2 cockerels and 6 to 10 pullets were housed and 3 or 5 cockerels and 19 to 30 pullets in the coupled cage. Floor space per chicken was 800, 686 and 582cm2, respectively. Productions of the chickens were recorded from 21 to 70 weeks of age.
No significant differences were observed in body weight at 20 weeks of age, sexual maturity, egg weight at 50 weeks of age, percentage of qualified hatching egg, fertility of produced eggs and feed intake among treatments. However, it seems to record better production of the chickens in unit pen cages than that in coupled cages. Percentage of egg production was differed significantly among several treatments. Egg production of 4 treatments out of 6 using coupled cage was lower than that of 4 treatments using unit cage. It happened to struggle among cockerels housed in the same cage at sexual maturity to 30-32 weeks of age. Severe struggle was observed among cockerels housed in coupled cages.
From the results of the experiment, it was satisfactory that number of chickens housed per cage were 1 cockerel and 7 to 10 pullets and floor space per chicken was 800cm2. It was considered that pen cage system was competent for keeping SPF chickens to produce hatching eggs.
