Distribution Of Ambient Temperature In Confined House And Its Effect On Production Performance Of Caged Laying Hens

In recent years,the production of laying hens in China has tended to large-scale and intensive breeding.Therefore,high-density stacked cage farming has developed rapidly.With the increase of breeding density,the control of the internal environment of chicken houses becomes increasingly important.Among them,The main purpose of this study is to monitor the annual temperature of different locations and cage layers in a standardized closed cage chicken house and analyze the correlation with typical seasonal production performance.Provide parameter basis and reference,optimize the environmental control and parameters of closed cage chicken houses,thereby improving the production efficiency of laying hens.This study took a closed egg hen house in a company in Shandong Province as the experimental object.Arrange 100 temperature recording and monitoring points at different positions and cage layers in the house.And Analysis of the environmental temperature differences among the longitudinal,transverse,and cage layers in the house during four seasons.Determination of production performance,egg quality,and welfare status of laying hens at different positions and cage layers in summer,and the correlation analysis with temperature parameters was conducted.The results show that the temperature in the house gradually increases from the wet curtain end to the fan end,and Maximum temperature rise1.17°C.The average temperature of the second and fourth rows of cages is significantly lower than that of the first,third,and fifth rows(P < 0.01).And the maximum temperature difference in winter is 1.81°C.The temperature of the top layer cage is the lowest in all seasons(P < 0.01),and the temperature of the third layer cage is the highest in winter,with a maximum temperature difference of 2.24°C.The maximum temperature difference in the house in winter is 8.2°C to 16.1°C,and the minimum temperature difference in autumn is2.8°C to 7.6°C.In summer,the egg production of wet curtain end layers tends to be higher than that of chicken houses and fan ends(P < 0.01),and the egg weight,egg yolk color,and Haugh unit gradually decrease from the wet curtain end to the fan end(P < 0.01).There is no significant difference in egg production rate and egg production between different cage layers(P > 0.05).The health level of chicken feet on the fan end and the fourth layer is the highest.The laying rate and egg production among different columns gradually increased from column 5 to column 3(P < 0.05),and the egg weight in column 4 was significantly higher than that in columns 3 and 5(P < 0.01).There is no significant difference in various welfare indicators of laying hens(P > 0.05).There was a significant negative correlation between egg weight(P < 0.01)and indoor temperature,and the trend of Haugh unit(P < 0.05)change was the same.In summary,this study determined that there are significant differences in the environmental temperature inside a closed egg coop in different seasons,locations,and cage layers: the temperature inside the coop is most affected by the outside temperature in summer,and the temperature is higher,while the insulation performance in winter is better and less affected by external factors;The temperature gradually increases from S1-S5,and the temperature at the wet curtain is the lowest;The fourth layer has the lowest temperature,significantly lower than layers 1,2,and 3;In the chicken coop,the temperature near the wall and in the middle column is high,that is,the temperature in columns 1,3,and 5 is significantly higher than that in columns 2 and 4.There was no difference in the evaluation of production performance and animal welfare indicators,but in the egg quality,the egg weight and Harrington unit were higher at S1 and L4 cages,and the corresponding temperature at S1 and L4 cages was lower,so egg weight and Harrington unit had a strong negative correlation with temperature.