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Many farmers are adopting this system due to its economic value both financially as well as space-wise. The cages have a number of advantages over the deep litter poultry system. In the battery cage system,the chickens are kept in cages where their movement is restricted and three chickens occupy a cubicle.Their droppings drop to the floor beneath the cages so the chickens have no direct contact with their feces.Thus,much reduced health risks and much less expenditure on vaccines. The farmer can easily do a stock count of the chickens and the chickens will not have access to the eggs.The eggs will roll out of their reach after laying. Further,it is much easier to feed the chickens and provide water as these will be poured into their feeders and drinkers attached to the battery cages.Therefore,wastage of feed is much more reduced unlike in the dry or deep litter system. The battery cage is better suited as the egg production is higher than in the deep litter because movement is restricted which makes the chickens conserve their energy for increase in production levels. However if you are financially constrained and can not afford to buy battery cages, you may stick to the dry litter system on the following conditions: 1) The evacuation of the chicken droppings must be done twice weekly especially if the farm is in the home where there are other homes around you.Twice weekly evacuation is to maintain a high standard of cleanliness and to reduce the risks of infection to the chickens. 2)You must have adequate space to operate a deep litter system. There must be no overcrowding of chickens.Overcrowding is a hazard. Using battery cages conserves space. Take note that there are minimum feeding space and floor space requirements to observe in the deep litter system at different stages of growth.Adequate floor space in the deep litter system is an absolute necessity because overcrowding chickens leads to poor growth and development and rapid spread of diseases. 3)The cleaning exercise in the dry litter system is a more tedious exercise than in the battery system. Continue reading.......... The battery cage system is far better for the following reasons: 1)Egg production is much higher than in the deep litter because the movement of the chickens is restricted in the battery cage system as the chickens can conserve their energy for production In the deep litter system, the chickens move about and burn their energy in the process leading to lower production 2) In the battery cage system, the chicken have no direct access to their faeces meaning much reduced risks of infection and reduced medication fees unlike in the deep litter where the chickens have direct contact with the faeces which contain ammonia and which is a serious health hazard. 3)In the battery cage system, the chickens have no contact with their eggs which will roll out of their reach unloke the deep litter where the chickens break some of the eggs resulting to loss of revenue 4)In the battery cage system,feeding and watering is far easier and no wastages occur but in the deep litter, it is stressful feeding and watering the chickens and wastage occur where the chickens may walk in the feed, perch on the feeders and soil the feed or trip off the water drinkers, soiling the litter. wet litter causes coccidiosis infection which is also a serious health hazard in chickens 5)in the battery cage,the farmer can easily count his chickens but in the deep litter,it is almost impossible where there is a large flock cos the chickens are always moving about which makes counting to be difficult. where the staff are stealing the chickens, the owner farmer will not know quickly. 6)It is much easier to evacuate the waste in the battery cage system unlike the deep litter which is much more stressful. In the battery cage, you have to spread wood shavings on the floor beneath the cages and the faeces will drop on them.Then pack the faeces mixed with the wood shavings every 3 days maximum else it will smell badly. there is a powder called fossil shell which added to the chicken feed at ratio of half kilo to a bag of chicken feed will not cause the faeces to smell even if the waste is not evacuated for 5 days.However,it will increase overhead costs on the farm.