In an aviary poultry system, birds live in multi-level open surfaces called aviaries. As a result they are able to move around and are usually equally distributed in the coop.
According to some, the aviary poultry system originated in Europe and was developed as an alternative to cage systems, after their ban.
You may also be interested in:
- Comparison of cage and aviary systems
- Intensive poultry systems compared
- How to select the best poultry system
- Transition from cage to aviary system
Aviary poultry system
The aviary poultry system is one of 5 intensive poultry systems. Others are deep litter, slatted floor, cages, and furnished cages.
By design, an aviary poultry system enables birds to move horizontally and vertically in the coop. As a result, this helps avoid crowding and clustering in one place. Moreover, such bird distribution throughout the coop, allows good air circulation and ventilation.
Additionally, by reducing crowding, an aviary system can help reduce aggression among birds.
In comparison to deep litter or slated floor, an aviary poultry system can stock more birds. This is because in the aviary, birds live on multi-tiered levels, and are able to access feed, and water from there.
Importantly still, the aviary system affords perching, jumping and flying; behaviours that are considered good for poultry skeletal health and welfare.
Aviary system and poultry welfare
Because of the animal welfare affordances, the aviary poultry system is considered as an alternative to cage systems. However, from a production point of view, the aviary system appears to have lower egg production rate than battery cage and furnished cage systems.
Although on average, cage systems may be more productive than aviaries, cage systems are considered detrimental to animal welfare. As a result cage systems are increasingly being banned around the world.
The EU already banned conventional cage system in 2012 and is set to ban all cage systems in 2027. Sweden was the first country to ban cage systems in 1988. Switzerland followed suit 4 years later. Unsurprisingly, more countries and regional blocs have followed.
Pros and cons of aviary poultry system
As with most poultry systems, the aviary systems has its own benefits and drawbacks.
| Benefits | Drawbacks |
|---|---|
| Enables birds to engage in behaviours that promote animal welfare and health including flying, jumping, and dirt bathing | Is capital intensive to set up |
| Thus has better animal welfare rating than cage systems | Labour needs can be high if flock management activities such as feeding, watering and egg collection are not automated |
| In comparison to slatted floor or deep litter, an aviary can stock a bigger flock in the same coop size | Reportedly the aviary system has lower egg production rate than cage systems |
Manage poultry systems using Kukufarm
Did you know you can manage poultry systems with Kukufarm? On Kukufarm app, you can tag your coops and flocks with respective poultry systems.
This will enable you to track and understand your flocks’ performance over time. Moreover, it will enable you to compare performance across different poultry systems.
In addition, flock-tagging by poultry system is reflected on archived flocks. Thus when referring to flock records later on, you have enough context to understand flock performance. Above all, this will support you in practicing data based farming.