Enriched Colony Cages for Layers in Ghana

What separates an enriched colony cage from a battery cage

An enriched colony cage is not a battery cage with a perch bolted on. The difference is in the room the hens get and in what the cage asks them to do. A conventional battery cage gives each hen a small rectangle of wire and a feed trough. An enriched colony cage gives a group of hens a larger shared space, a nest, a perch and an area where they can scratch and peck at a substrate, which lets them show the behaviour that a battery hen is denied.

The enriched cage also has to be built around those extras. Every item is a design decision: how far the nest sits from the feeder, how high the perch is, how the scratch pad is anchored so it does not become a heap of wet litter under the hens. Two cages can look alike from the aisle and be very different once the hens are inside.

In practice, most farms in Ghana will meet these systems through a supplier, usually an importer, and the drawings will be in the supplier's standard units. Learn the terms before the sales call, so you can tell whether a cage is actually enriched or only described that way. Our battery cage and deep litter comparison covers the wider choice of housing, and our free-range or cage eggs guide looks at what each system does to quality and cost. This article goes deeper into the enriched cage alone.

The floor-space sum for 500, 1,000 and 2,000 hens

Floor space is where the sums start, and where a lot of farm plans fall apart. As we understand the EU enriched-cage rule, it sets 750 square centimetres per hen, of which at least 600 square centimetres must be usable floor, and a minimum cage height of about 20 centimetres above that usable area. The old EU battery minimum was 550 square centimetres per hen. The rule has changed over the years, so check the current text before you specify anything.

Here is what those two figures mean for a house, counting cage floor only. Aisles, walls, the feed store and the service passage all add to the building, and they add a good deal more than most first plans allow.

The gap between the two columns is the first thing a buyer should look at. At 1,000 hens, the enriched standard needs 20 square metres more cage floor than the old battery figure, before any aisle is built. That is a house that costs more to roof, light and ventilate, and it is a reason to check whether your site can take the building before you buy the cages.

Nests, perches and scratch areas: what the hens actually use

A hen in an enriched cage will use the nest if it is dark, clean and easy to reach from the floor. The commonest reason a nest sits empty in a new enriched house is that the hens cannot get into it without climbing a steep ramp or stepping over a lip. Check the step height and the angle of the ramp before the first flock arrives, and watch the first week to see which hens are struggling.

Perches should be placed so that hens can reach them from the floor without flying, and the perch should be wide enough to grip without wobbling. A perch that is too close to the wall tends to get dirty underneath, and a perch that is too high stops the lighter hens from getting on at all. Hens prefer to roost in a group, and that is worth remembering when you plan the house layout.

The scratch area is the part that gets neglected. It needs a substrate that the hens can peck and turn over, and it has to stay reasonably dry, which in a Ghanaian house is a daily job. A wet or compacted scratch pad becomes a source of ammonia and a place where droppings build up. Turn it, clean it and replace it before it turns into a floor of caked material. If you are unsure how many nests a group needs, our nest box guide gives the counts we use as a starting point.

Feet, claws and the wire floor

Hens living on wire grow long claws, and long claws catch on the mesh. A hen with a torn toenail or a sore foot will avoid the feeder, the drinker and the nest, and her weight and lay drop with her. Many enriched systems include a claw-shortening device, a rough strip or a fixed ledge that wears the claws down as the hens walk. Ask whether the cage you are buying has one, and where it sits.

The wire itself needs checking. A wire that is too thick and too wide pushes into the foot. A wire that is too thin bends under the weight of a group. Look at the mesh in the supplier's sample, and hold it in your hand before you agree. Walk on it in socks, if you can, and imagine doing that every day.

Keep an eye on the foot pads of the first flock. Swollen or sore pads usually show up in the first weeks, when the hens are still learning to stand on the mesh, and they are a sign that the floor, the perch or the nest step needs changing. A quick weekly walk down the cage row with a torch will show you which hens are favouring one foot.

Sloped floors and egg roll: keeping eggs clean

The sloped floor is what makes an enriched cage egg-friendly. An egg laid in a nest on a sloped floor rolls out of the nest, down the slope and onto a collection belt or a tray, and that means the egg never sits in the hen's litter or droppings. Our understanding of the EU rule is that it requires a floor slope of at least 14 percent. Measure the slope on the supplier's drawing, not just on the sales brochure.

A flat wire floor does the opposite. The egg rolls nowhere, sits in the wire, and picks up dirt from the hens standing on it. The shell is also more likely to crack when it lands. In a house that has no collection belt, the egg roll distance is the number to check, because a long roll bounces the egg and a short one stops it at the mouth of the nest.

Collection on a belt is faster than collection by hand, but it only works if the belt is kept running, cleaned and free of broken shells. A belt that jams in the first week will break more eggs than a skilled collector would by hand. Test the belt with eggs before the first flock moves in, and time a full run from nest to store.

Heat and airflow in a Ghana cage house

Enriched cages give the hens more room than battery cages, but they do not give them shade or wind. A hen in a cage cannot walk to a cooler corner, and in a hot house she is stuck where she is. The house has to do that job for her. Plan the airflow before anything else, and treat the cages as the thing being ventilated.

In most Ghanaian conditions the house needs a clear path for air to move from one end to the other, with inlets on the side and outlets at the far end or the ridge. Fans help once the air is already moving, and they fail when the power goes. Work out how long the house can hold a safe temperature with the fans off, and decide what you will do during a cut. Our hot-season article on egg drop covers how heat reduces lay before it kills, and our lighting programme guide has notes on planning around power cuts.

Water is the first line of heat defence. Check that the drinkers run at full flow in the afternoon, when the day is hottest and the hens drink most. Add a second drinker line on the hottest days if the house is built for it, and keep the drinkers clean, because dirty water is the fastest way to lose intake in a heat spell.

Droppings belts and ammonia: the daily clean

A cage house with a droppings belt is a different job from one on deep litter. The belt carries droppings away from the birds, and it needs running every day or at least every second day, depending on the stocking. If the belt is left to pile up, the droppings start to ferment, and the smell you notice at the door is ammonia. By the time you can smell it, the air is already damaging the hens' eyes and airways.

Ammonia is the number that tells you the house is being run well. It comes from wet droppings, so the fix is removing the droppings quickly and keeping the air moving, not spraying perfume over the top. Check the house at the start of each day with your nose and your eyes. Red or watery eyes, coughing hens or a sharp smell at bird height all mean the belt is behind and the ventilation needs a look.

Write the belt run times on the record and sign them. A cleaner who thinks the belt runs every morning, when it runs every other morning, will not know there is a problem until the hens start to sneeze. Keep the house clean between flocks as well, using the routine in our biosecurity guide.

Feeders and drinkers placed so every hen gets a turn

In a group cage, the feed and water placement decides whether every hen eats. A feeder at the front of the cage and a drinker at the back, with the nest and perch between them, makes the subordinate hens walk through the group to reach food. The bullies sit at the feeder and the shy ones go hungry. Place the feeder and the drinkers so the lowest-ranking hen can reach both without going into the middle.

Check the trough length against the group size on the supplier's figures, then check the trough height against the hens' size. A trough that is too high wastes feed, and one that is too low lets the hens stand in it and foul the mash. Weigh the feed each day for the first two weeks, and see whether the intake matches the hens' size and lay rate. Our layer feeding guide gives the feed amounts by phase that you should be checking against.

The nipple drinkers should be at a height the hens reach easily. If the hens stretch to drink, they spill more water and lay less. Adjust the height as the hens grow, and inspect the nipples each week for blockages from minerals in the water.

What to ask a cage supplier before you pay

A supplier can be honest and still leave out the things that will hurt your house. Ask for the drawings in full, not just the front elevation, and check the floor area per hen, the usable area, the cage height, the nest size, the perch length, the scratch area, the claw device, the slope and the belt. Each of these should be a figure, not a phrase like generous or spacious.

Ask how many hens each cage holds, and how the group size was set. Ask what the cage is made of and what the coating is, because a coating that flakes in the first season will harbour dirt. Ask what the warranty covers and how long it lasts, and whether the supplier can send an engineer or a replacement part quickly in the middle of the flock's laying season.

Ask about installation, and who is responsible for the belt and the fans. A cage that arrives in crates and is bolted together by the farm's own labour can go wrong in ways the supplier will not cover. Get the answers in writing, and keep the emails. A quote with the figures in it is worth more than any amount of verbal reassurance.

Who should not start with enriched cages

Enriched cages are a bad first step for a farm that has never run a layer house. The system has more moving parts than a deep-litter house, and each one needs a daily check. A new farmer with a small capital base will often find that the cage costs take the money that the feed, the vaccines and the pullets need. In those cases, a well-run deep-litter house will make more money for longer.

They also suit a farm that has the power to run the fans, the belt and the lights through an outage, or the means to back them up. A cage house that loses ventilation for a full afternoon in a Ghanaian dry season can lose birds quickly, and a farm that cannot afford a backup should think hard before it buys in.

Finally, they suit a farm that already knows its lay rate, its feed per egg and its egg buyers. The cage is a multiplier. A farm that runs its numbers well will get more from it, and a farm that is still guessing will simply pay more for the same guesses. If you are still at the planning stage, our step-by-step guide to starting a layer farm puts the housing decision in its place in the order of spending, and layer day-old chicks are the usual first purchase.

Mistakes we see when a farm moves into cages

• Stocking to the old battery figure. The cage fits more hens on paper, and the hens lose room, feed access and welfare.
• Building the house before the drawings are final. A change in cage width means the roof, the fans and the aisles all have to move.
• Letting the belt run late. One missed day becomes a smell, and the smell becomes a health problem.
• Ignoring the claws and feet. A hen that cannot reach the feeder is a hen that stops laying.
• Trusting a single fan. One failed fan on a hot afternoon is enough to lose a flock's lay for a week.
• Stocking all the cages at once. A new house needs a few weeks of checks before it is full, and so do the hens.

A checklist before the first flock moves in

1. Check the floor area per hen, the usable area and the cage height against the current regulation.
2. Measure the floor slope and the egg roll distance on the installed cages, not just the drawing.
3. Test the claw device and the nest ramp with a dummy group of hens, or with the first hens in a small section.
4. Run the droppings belt and the egg belt empty, then with eggs, and time each run.
5. Check the fans, the inlets and the outlets, and confirm the backup power covers the fans for the hottest afternoon.
6. Set the feeder and drinker heights for the age of the first flock, and plan how they will be raised.
7. Write the daily check sheet for belts, water, feed, eyes, feet and smell, and assign each job to a named person.
8. Confirm the chicks or pullets are vaccinated and their batch records are on file before they move in.

Questions farmers ask