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 is merely of sufficient size to enable 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. As this type of floor provides great difficulty for the operatives in removing this waste material on a regular basis, generally the floor is left untouched for the period of growth of a particular batch of birds and the material is removed only when the batch is fully grown and removed from the pen.

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 transportation to slaughter.

The above use of the solid, straw or shavings covered floor allows the operatives to move about freely but can cause problems with infection and disease caused by the collection of the 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 could if collected be used in subsequent feeding to ruminant type livestock. However the fact that collection can take place only after the few weeks of the growth period prevents the material being used since this delay results in the development 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 ithout disturbing the flock above. Examples are shown in United States patent 3,371,495 (Stevenson et al) , 4,430,960 (Nagel) and Canadian patent 1,188,578 (Nijhof) . 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 unsightly 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.

It is one object of the present invention,

therefore, to provide an improved flooring for poultry 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 the all important breast area for high quality product.

According to the invention, therefore, there is provided a flooring for supporting birds in a poultry pen characterized "in that it comprises a rigid subfloor providing sufficient strength to support a person standing thereon, said subfloor comprising a grid defined by a first plurality of generally parallel strip members and a second plurality of generally 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 sufficiently small to allow a foot of a person to span from one strip member to a next adjacent strip member without falling between,the two, 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 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 space 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 crossing points of the grid thus defining between four such pegs a rectangular area of the order of 4 inches in transverse dimension which is sufficiently 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.

One embodiment of the invention will be described in the following, when taken with the accom¬ panying drawings in which:

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 and subframe of the flooring of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is an isometric view showing a small portion of the upper flexible floor of the embodiment of Figure 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

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 defining openings 17 therebetween. Each strip member is designed in height, width and material so as to maximize the size of openings 17 defined therein so that any waste material can readily fall through onto a lower base 18. 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 thermo¬ plastic plastics materials by injection molding, or from any other suitable noncorrosive plastics or fiber rein¬ forced plastics material.

The grid constituting the subfloor is supported on the subframe consisting of a plurality of spaced parallel horizontal beams 184 which are preferably formed by pultrusion to form a hollow rectangular cross section. The beams are supported upon a plurality of cast plastics yokes 19 one of which is shown which includes a vertical leg 20 so that the subfloor is supported 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 18H so that the junction- between the sections can sit upon the upper surface of the beam 18H. 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¬ tively thin plastics material which has slots punched or formed 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 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 turfceys 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 small 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 holes 21 as a press fit so that it is 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 hole 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 subfloor 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 single wobbly post thus inhibiting perching on that post. Birds are of course well skilled in perching on transverse beams or wires but are inhib¬ 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.