Favorite Manufacturing, Inc.

Harlan W Martin

Harvey Z Burkholder

Willis R Voran

Galen A Winters

A cage and manure removal system for egg-laying poultry is disclosed. In the system, a bank of cages are disposed in pairs of rows in vertically-spaced tiers. A horizontally disposed manure dropping board overlies the cage rows in the lower tiers for collecting droppings excreted by poultry in the overlying cage rows. The droppings are periodically cleaned from the dropping boards by a manure scraping assembly which comprises a carriage mounted for movement along a monorail which overlies the cage bank and has a depending post mounting a series of augers adapted to travel along the top surfaces of the dropping boards. As the carriage advances and the augers rotate, the droppings are displaced inwardly on the dropping boards for collection in a collection pit located below the cage bank. A method of handling manure to promote drying is also disclosed.

High-density poultry cage system and manure handling method

An egg collector for use in conjunction with a multi-tier poultry cage system to collect eggs from cage belts at various levels and to transfer the eggs to a common cross-belt conveyor. The collector comprises a series of intermediate conveyors each including an endless belt having a series of individual egg-receiving cups disposed in longitudinally spaced relation along the belt. Transfer means located alongside each belt gathers the eggs from each cage conveyor belt and delivers them individually to successive egg-receiving cups of each intermediate conveyor. The eggs are conveyed downwardly by the intermediate conveyors to a location adjacent the cross belt where means is provided to control unloading of the eggs from the cups.

Growing community of inventors

New Holland, PA, United States of America

Harlan W Martin