Effects of floor space area in battery cages on the bird weight and egg production of olympia black layers

The impact of varying floor space area in battery cages have been evaluated on the weight and egg production of olympia black laying birds. The experiment was carried out using battery cages with varying floor spaces area of 300 mm by 300 mm, 380 mm by 380 mm and 460 mm by 460 mm also stocked with 2 and 3 birds per cage cell. The experimental birds used were 45 Olympia black layers, which are seventeen weeks old and the experiment lasted for twelve weeks. The birds’ weights were measured while egg production was determined on weekly bases. Design expert software 6.0.8 version was used for experimental design and analysis of the experiment. The results obtained shows that Cage cells 380 mm × 380 mm with 2 birds gave the optimum weight of birds to be 1.46 kg and also gave the optimum egg production of 7 eggs per bird per week while cage cells (300 mm × 300 mm) with 3 birds gave the lowest productivity with egg production 4 eggs per bird per week. There was a significant effect of stocking density on the weight of bird and egg production at P ˂ 0.05. The study was able to established a template for the development of battery cage, which caters for maximum productivity and welfare of laying birds Keywords: Stocking density, battery cages and egg production. DOI: 10.7176/ISDE/10-7-05 Publication date: September 30th 201

Fate of compost nutrients as affected by co-composting of chicken and swine manures

Passive aeration co-composting using four mixtures of chicken manure and swine manure at 1:0, 1:1, 3:7 and 0:1 with sawdust and rice husk was carried out to study the effects of co-composting on the physicochemical properties of the organic materials. The experiment, which lasted 66 days, was carried out in bins equipped with inverted T aeration pipes. The results showed that nutrient losses decreased as the proportion of chicken manure in the mixtures decreased for saw dust and rice husk treatments. This indicates better nutrientst conservation during composting in swine than chicken manure. Manure mixtures with rice husk had higher pile temperatures total carbon and total nitrogen losses, while manure mixtures with saw dust had higher total phosphorus loss and carbon to nitrogen ratio. Composts with rice husk demonstrated the ability to reach maturity faster by the rate of drop of the carbon to nitrogen ratio