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The "Working Group of Advisors for Poultry Farming" met in Eindhoven for further training and to exchange experiences. They also went on an excursion to the Belgian research station.
For further education and exchange of experience, the "Working Group of Poultry Consultants" met in Eindhoven. An excursion also led them to the Belgian research station.
There are four different housing systems for laying hens with a total of 30,000 animal places in various compartments at the research station in Geel, Belgium. These include two different aviary systems as well as furnished cages, which still account for about 36% in Belgium.
There is also a combination system from Vencomatic designed for 150 hens per group. The larger cage is equipped with nesting boxes, scratching areas, and dust baths. During the visit of the poultry consultants, all hen houses were empty.
In Geel, testing is being conducted to determine if and how the activity of the animals recorded by cameras is related to the existing mite population. Research is also being done on how hens react to enrichment in the barn, such as whether the use of pecking stones is related to the composition of the feed.
Researcher Hanne Nijs is one of a total of 28 employees at the Geel research station.
There are 42,000 barn spaces available for experimentation.
Sustainability is a key aspect of research activities. The potential of using treated rainwater as a drink is being explored, as well as the reuse of wash water from the chicken coop for re-cleaning the barn.
For tests with chickens, 42,000 barn spaces, divided into several compartments and test groups, are available. Various techniques are used here to measure the concentration of ammonia.
An experiment based on the European Chicken Commitment (including slower-growing animals, max. 30 kg/m2) compared to standard fattening has shown that at lower stocking densities, two to three times more ammonia is produced.
