Chicken coops plans

Below is an extract from ‘The Age’ newspaper of Wednesday July 11 2001 describing an experimental shed being built in Victoria to test the various type of floor shedding for layers:

Scientists seek a kinder, productive life for chooks.By David Wroe: Rural reporter

Chooks have for years been at the centre of a tussle between our desire to treat animals humanely and Australia’s appetite for 210 million dozen eggs a year.

Now, in a move that pleases animal welfare lobbyists and egg farmers alike, a Melbourne University team will study 10,000 chickens to help egg farmers find better ways to balance animal welfare with efficient egg production.

The AU$760,000 project by the university’s Institute of Land and Food Resources hopes to find out what living conditions make the happiest, healthiest and most productive chickens.

It would be the first time in Australia that hens producing barn-laid eggs — they live indoors in a controlled environment but are free to move about — were studied as they lived alongside battery and free-range hens, said Andrew Almond, a lecturer in poultry production at the Institute.

“We wish to be part of the animal welfare debate, to bring some science into the argument instead of just emotion,” he said.

A massive barn will be built at the Longerenong College’s egg farm in western Victoria and divided into sections, each with different living conditions.

Battery farming with chickens kept in small cages, still accounts for about 90 per cent of the 70 million dozen eggs produced annually in Victoria. It is efficient because farmers can control conditions such as temperature and feeding.

While it was commonly assumed that free-range hens — which live outdoors — were better off, this was not always so, Mr. Almond said. Free-range chickens were victims to such diseases as coccidiosis, pecking orders predators and extreme weather.

Free-range farms produce about 8 per cent of the nation’s eggs and the barn-laid method makes up the remaining 2 per cent. But barn living could grow to 20 per cent in five years, Mr. Almond Said.

The Institute, the Victorian Government, and the RSPCA and industry groups have paid to set up the project, but its eggs sales will cover ongoing costs.

This would be the ultimate test, Mr. Almond said. “If we can’t make a go of it, how can a farmer do it?”

Meg Parkinson the Victorian farmers Federation egg group president, said the project would give farmers independent, objective advice about changing to the barn-laid egg system. “The egg industry has been under a lot of pressure lately from the animal welfare lobby groups,” she said.

“The great thing about this facility is that if our farmers want to move to barn-laid, they can go and have a look. You can actually now see whether things work.”

The plan also has support of RSPCA national president High Wirth who said barn laying met all of the RSPCA’s requirements for the humane handling of chooks. We’ve considered, of course, free range, which we don’t see as a viable commercial alternative.