News for the Egg Industry Worldwide

March 2007/Volume 112 Number 3
Cage-Free Housing: Used Vs. New?
Industry News
On the Road with John Todd
What Was New at IPE
Emerging Egg Technology
Industry Calendar
Marketplace

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C age-Free Housing: Used Vs. New?

Many growers have gotten their feet wet in cage-free by converting existing housing, but that may be starting to change, some say.

Wilcox had been buying and marketing cage-free eggs from other growers, but he says he decided his farm “should walk the talk.” Since switching 30,000 birds of his 1.2 million total to cage-free, he says there have been no insurmountable challenges thus far, and says that in his marketing area of the Pacific Northwest, demand is still outpacing supply, and he hopes it stays that way. “We don’t want (cage-free, organic eggs) to become a commodity.”

By Edward Clark, Editor

Barrie Wilcox illustrates what many egg producers have done for housing when first investing in cage-free egg production. When the Roy, Wash., producer first went cage-free on part of his production six months ago, “we converted an old layer house that had not been in use for a number of years,” Wilcox says.

“We completely remodeled it, taking the old cages out,” says the president of Wilcox Farms, whose family has been in the egg business since 1909.

After visiting cage-free operations both in the United States and Europe, Wilcox decided to install a three-level aviary system, which allows the birds to perch, nest, and have access to feed. And because his production is also organic, his laying hens have access to the outside.

Converting Old Houses

On the housing front, Wilcox’s example is fairly typical of what egg operations—including very large ones—have been doing; converting old egg houses, or unused broiler houses to cage-free production, says Rick VanPuffelen, sales and marketing manager for Chore-Time Egg Production Systems, Milford, Ind.

“There’s a significant amount of broiler house conversions to cage-free,” VanPuffelen says, which is a low-cost way for producers to enter the business. For the most part, nests for the birds in these remodeled older facilities are placed down the middle on the floor. Farmers will take an old house and put in new nests, new feeding systems, new watering equipment, and new ventilation systems as needed.