Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
"FLOORING FOR POULTRY PE~"
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BACKGROU~D OF THE INVE~TION
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This invention relates to a flooring for a
poultry pen.
Poultry and particularly broilers are generally
raised from chicks to slaughter in the same pen in a
matter of weeks. The birds are generally kept in rela-
tively high densities within a single pen which enables
them to move about within the pen. During their life
they spend much of their time resting on the floor with
their breast directly in contact with the floor.
In most cases the floor is constituted simply
by an earth or concrete base covered with straw or other
suitable bedding materials on which the waste material or
feces merely collects, with great difficulty in the
operatives removing the waste material and generally the
floor is left untouched for the period of growth of a
particular batch of birds.
It is of course necessary for the operatives to
move about on the floor at the same time as the birds are
on the floor in order to carry out regular culling of
dead or damaged birds, to repair feeding or watering
equipment and in order to catch and crate the birds for
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transportation to slaughter.
The above use of the solid, straw or shavings
covered floor allows the operatives to move about ~reely
but can cause problems with infection and disease caused
by the collection of waste materials or flooding from
watering system breakdowns. In addition the waste
material retains a useful amount of feed material since
it contains nutrients which can be used in subsequent
feeding to rhumenant type livestock. However the above
arrangement prevents daily or regular colletion of the
manure, allowing collection only after the flock is
raised and removed. This delay results in the develop-
ment of botulism and other harmful bacteria which
destroys the usefulness of the manure.
Another problem which arises is that medication
is required in the feed, i.e., antibiotics, to help the
bird cope with living on its own feces. These medicated
feeds can result in (1) excess cost (2) contaminated meat
and~human allergic reaction.
Various designs of manufactured flooring have
therefore been developed over the years to attempt to
allow the collection of the waste material beneath the
floor for removal and further use regularly without
disturbing the flock above. Examples are shown in United
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States patent 3,371,495 (Stevenson et al), 4,430,960(~agel) and Canadian patent 1,188,578 (~ijho~). In many
cases this type of flooring does not allow an operative
to properly enter the area where the birds are kept so as
to provide the necessary culling or catching of the
birds. In some cases this is overcome by providing as
the flooring a conveyor belt which will move toward one
end at which the birds can be grasped or dead birds
removed.
However this type of flooring in many cases has
a severe disadvantage that is the birds tend to sit upon
transverse wires or strips which support the floor and
thus cause indentation in the breast resulting in crooked
keel bones and in some cases un~ightly breast blisters
which are unacceptable in broilers and require the birds
to be culled due to health standards and to be used only
for soup. Little success has therefore been obtained in
providing a flooring which overcomes all of these
requirements and while many of the new designs of floor-
ing have been tried, very little commercial success has
been attained.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is one object of the present invention,
therefore, to provide an improved flooring for poultry
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pens of a type which allows operatives to walk on the
floor to carry out their regular duties, which provides
openings or perforations in the floor to allow waste
material to fall through the floor for collection on a
suitable horizontal base and yet which allows the birds
to rest on the floor without damaging ~he all important
breast area for high quality product.
According to the invention, therefore, there is
providPd a flooring for supporting birds in a poultry pen
comprising a rigid subfloor providing sufficient strength
to support a person standing thereon, said subfloor com-
prising a grid defined by a first plurality of generally
parallel strip members and a second plurality of general-
ly parallel strip members arranged to cross the first
plurality at an angle thereto so as to define open spaces
between the strip members of a size sufficiently large to
allow waste material to fall therethrough, and suffic-
iently small to allow a foot of a person to span from one
strip member to a next adjacent without falling there-
through, a flexible perforated floor arranged to extend
across said subfloor, and a plurality of spaced substan-
tially vertical strut means extending between said strip
members of said grid and said flexible perforated floor
for supporting said floor at a position spaced above said
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subfloor, said strut means being sufficiently rigid to
appear to a bird as a rigid projection and sufficiently
flexible to collapse when compressed by the foot of a
person, said strut means and said strip members being
spaced to define above each open gpace in the grid a
portion of said flexible floor which can flex when
receiving a bird resting thereon to curve around the
bird.
The rigid subfloor therefore provides enough
strength for the operatives to walk on the subfloor with
the grids in the subfloor being of the order of 4 inches
in transverse dimension so that the operatives can read-
ily place his feet on the subfloor without danger of
falling through. The upper flexible flooring, when the
operative walks on the floor, compresses so that in
effect he is walking merely on the subfloor with the
flexible flooring compressed fully down to the subfloor.
The situation from the point of view of the
bird is however totally different in that the strut means
are sufficiently rigid so that the strut means appears to
the bird as a rigid peg or post which is holding up the
flexible flooring. Preferably the pegs or posts are
spaced at the crossin~ point~ of the grid thus defining
between four such pegs a rectangular area of the order of
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4 inches in transverse dimension which is suficiently
large to receive the body of a sitting bird. The pegs or
posts appear to the bird to be rigid and hence tend to
inhibit roosting of the bird directly on top of a peg
since it appears to the bird as a wobbly post with the
bird therefore tending to sit between the pegs in the
unsupported area therebetween. The upper floor is suffi-
ciently flexible so that it bows under the weight of the
bird and thus gently cushions the bird in a "cupping
form" in its preferred perch.
With the foregoing in view, and other advan-
tages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art
to which this invention relates as this specification
proceeds, the invention is herein described by reference
to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, which
includes a description of the best mode known to the
applicant and of the preferred typical embodiment of the
principles of the present invention, in which:
DESCRIPTIO~ OF THE DRAWI~GS
Figure 1 is a transverse cross sectional view
showing a portion of the flooring carrying a bird at one
point on the flooring and receiving the foot of a person
on another point on the flooring.
Figure 2 is an isometric view of the subfloor
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and subframe of the flooring of Figure 1.
Figure 3 is an isometric view showing a small
portion of the upper flexible 100r of the embodiment of
Figure 1.
In the drawings like characters of reference
indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTI0~
The subfloor and subframe is illustrated in
Figures 1 and 2. The subfloor comprises a grid 10 formed
by parallel strip members 11, 12, 13 which cross at right
angles with a plurality of further parallel strip members
14, 15, 16 to form a complete grid of rectangular cells.
each strip member is of a narrow transverse width with
the strength provided effectively by the height of the
strip so as to increase the size of openings 17 defined
therein so that any waste material can readily fall
through onto a lower base 1~. In practice the height of
the strip members may be of the order of 1 1/2 to 2 1/2
inches and the width of the order of 1/4 inch with the
grid formed from suitable thermoplastic plastics
materials by injection molding, or from any other suit-
able noncorrosive plastics or fiber reinforced plastics
material.
The grid constituting the sub100r is supported
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on a plurality of spaced parallel horizontal beams which
are preferably formed by pultrusion to form a hollow
rectangular cross section. One of the beams is indicated
at 18 and is supported upon a cagt plastics yoke 19 which
includes a vertical leg 20 80 that the subfloor is sup-
ported at a sufficient distance from the base 18 to allow
clearing of any collected waste material which falls
through the subfloor onto the base.
The subfloor is formed in sections which may be
for example approximately two feet square with the side
of the sections being equated to the spacing between the
beams 18A so that the junction between the sections can
sit upon the upper surface of the beam 18A. It will be
appreciated therefore that the whole of the subfloor and
subframe can be simply manufactured from plastics
materials using conventional techniques to form a corro-
sion resistant, easily assembled structure.
The openings 17 of the subfloor are suffi-
ciently small that a foot of a person can span from one
strip member to the next without falling therethrough; a
spacing of the order of 4 inches is suitable.
An upper floor is shown in Figures 1 and 3 and
is formed of a molded grate having the appearance of
expanded plastic material, that is a soft flexible rela-
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tively thin plastics material which has slots punched orformed therein so as to allow it to be open and flexible.
Other forms of soft plastics material may also be used
including ones which have holes molded therein. The
holes are very much smaller in size and very much larger
in number than the holes in the grid of the subfloor.
The degree of flexibility of the floor is such that it
will curve around the breast of the bird to cup the
bird.
The plastics material floor has formed inte-
grally therewith a plurality of pegs or small struts
projecting downwardly from an underside thereof. In
practice the pegs have a height of the order of one inch
or more merely to space the upper floor away from the
subfloor sufficiently so that a bird sitting on the
flexible floor cannot obtain pressure against his body
from any part of the subfloor.
The pegs are formed also of the soft flexible
plastics material from which the floor is molded so that
they are themselves flexible. Their dimension is chosen
so that under a force of less than the weight of the bird
for which the flooring is designed they remain effec-
tively rigid and upright. They are however totally flexi-
ble so that under a force significantly greater than the
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bird weight, they are totally compressed. It will be
appreciated that the flooring can be designed for small
broilers of up to 4 lbs. in weight or for large turkeys
which can reach 40 lbs. in weight or for weights in
between. In each case the flexibility of the floor and
the pegs will need to be designed and constructed to
accommodate the above functional requirements.
The grid forming the subfloor, has indicated at
21 a plurality of ~mall holes formed in the upper surface
at the crossing points between the right angled strip
members. The pegs are configured and arranged on the
underside of the floor so that each peg indicated at 22
has a lower end which can engage into a respective one of
the openings 21 as a press fit so that it iY retained in
proper position resting upon the grid even when the floor
is flexed by passing birds or passing persons. Adhesive
may be used to more firmly fix the lower end of the peg
22 in place in the opening 21 when the flooring is laid
onto the subfloor. Alternatively the peg and opening may
be shaped as a snap fastener arrangement or simply the
hole may receive the pin relying on gravity to maintain
its position.
In a yet further alternative arrangement the
pegs may be formed separately from both the subfloor and
the flooring and then again be pressed into place in
openings in the subfloor and then merely support the
flooring above the gubfloor by contact therewith or be
pressed into holes or recesses in the underside of the
floor.
As it will be seen in Figure 1 the action of a
foot of a person on the flooring is merely to fully
compress the pegs so that the person is effectively
standing upon the grid of the subfloor. The resilience
of the pegs however of course will act to spring the
upper floor back into place when the foot is removed.
The bird tends to sit between the pegs in the
pocket defined by the open area above the opening of the
grid. In this area the support for the bird is provided
by the bowing of the floor so that it curves around the
birds breast. A deviation of the floor by as much as the
height of the pegs can be accepted to provide the maximum
"cupping" while holding the bird away from contacting the
rigid subfloor.
The birds tend to sit in the spaces between the
pegs rather than on the pegs because the pegs themselves
appear to the bird as ~ingle wobbly post thus inhibiting
perching on that post. Birds are of course well skilled
in perching on transverse beams or wire~ but are inhib-
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ited by the single wobbling post which has, as explained
above, sufficient rigidity to appear as a rigid post but
will wobble from side to side due to the flexibility of
the floor.
Since various modifications can be made in my
invention as hereinabove described, and many apparently
widely different embodiments of same made within the
spirit and scope of the claims without departing from
such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter
contained in the accompanying specification shall be
interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting
sense.
