Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 67
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2 Q. To what age are they kept?
3 A. Usually the females are kept or grown until about 42
4 days. The males are grown a little longer to about 52
5 days.
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7 Q. Is the reason for that that in each case they will not
8 actually grow much bigger if you leave them in there?
9 A. Yes, there is a reason for that. It is strictly
10 economics. The males are capable of growing a little bit
11 bigger, efficiently than the females.
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13 Q. Are there stocking densities laid down by regulations or
14 guidelines?
15 A. Yes, there are.
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17 Q. What about temperature? I mean, some parts of the United
18 States have extreme climate, do they not?
19 A. Yes. I am glad you brought it up. I mentioned the
20 growing houses in the hot areas. In the cold areas it
21 would be the same except they will have heaters.
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23 Q. Heaters?
24 A. Yes.
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26 Q. So far the as welfare of the chickens is concerned, which
27 is the greater problem, excessive heat or excessive cold?
28 A. Heat. Probably heat, yes.
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30 Q. If you are a chicken in a growing house in a hot area of
31 the United States, I do not know, in the summer, let us
32 suppose somewhere like Louisiana or Arizona, how does the
33 farmer ensure that the chicken does not suffer?
34 A. I can show you an example of Arkansas where it is a hot
35 area and it has the largest population of chickens in the
36 US. They use fans with humidifiers. The purpose of the
37 humidifiers in hot areas is to have some water available
38 throughout the body of the bird. The purpose of the water,
39 if you look strictly to get into physics, we sweat. When
40 we sweat we convert the water into steam. To convert the
41 water to steam will take a lot of energy. So, when we add
42 water and that water evaporates it takes away heat. That
43 is how we cool off, the same way for animals, that is how
44 they cool off. That is why we sweat. That is the purpose
45 of having the water. We have the fans to increase that
46 rate of evaporation. That is, basically, how the
47 temperature and the conditions and the comfort of the
48 animal is controlled.
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50 Q. Imagine the chickens in the first few days after they have
51 arrived in the growing house when there is a good deal of
52 space per chicken because of their size, to what extent do
53 they use that space? Do they run around a lot? Do they
54 move from one to the other?
55 A. No. That is a very interesting point. They have more
56 room because they will be spending the rest of their lives
57 in that house, they will have plenty of room to run around,
58 but you will see them clustered together in one side of the
59 grow house and they will spend most of their time that
60 way. They like to be together. They are social animals
