Day 104 - 15 Mar 95 - Page 55


     
     1   Q.   But some birds would not be able to reach that, the smaller
     2        birds, or the sick birds, or whatever, would not be able to
     3        reach it, would they?
     4        A.  There is a possibility that that is the case.
     5
     6   Q.   So they would basically die of thirst?
     7        A.  If they are very small birds, they devise ways of
     8        drinking.  In other words, I have seen little birds jump on
     9        the other's backs to drink but, by and large, the drinkers
    10        are set so that birds can drink.
    11
    12   Q.   But apart from jumping on the other's birds backs, some
    13        birds are bound to die of thirst, are they not?
    14        A.  I would not accept that birds die of thirst.  I think
    15        if they are not going drink there is something pretty
    16        radically wrong with them anyway.
    17
    18   Q.   I am saying if they cannot reach the height of the
    19        drinkers?
    20        A.  In the hypothetical case that they cannot reach the
    21        drinkers then they would die.
    22
    23   Q.   Well it is not hypothetical, is it, if they are set at a
    24        height above what they can reach?
    25        A.  I think you have to understand, you probably have not
    26        been in a poultry house, the drinkers are very flexible in
    27        the heights that they can be put at.  Not all the drinkers
    28        are going to be at exactly the same height.  We have
    29        already described that environment/index.html">litter can be at variable depths
    30        throughout the house.  There will be drinkers at various
    31        different heights and that seems to accommodate pretty well
    32        for the difference in bird size: Life just is not as
    33        organised and as accurate as you perhaps think it might be.
    34
    35   Q.   You said that egg laying birds have greater tendency
    36        towards flight than heavier birds, that is what you said in
    37        your examination with Mr. Rampton.  Would that apply to
    38        broilers and battery hens, that the broilers have a less
    39        tendency to fly than the battery hens?
    40        A.  Broilers do not fly.
    41
    42   Q.   But the battery hens would have a greater tendency to fly
    43        if they could?
    44        A.  I do not know.  I am not commenting about battery hens
    45        because I have no experience of them.
    46
    47   Q.   But generally egg laying flocks have a tendency to?
    48        A.  I may have been talking about breeder birds in which
    49        case they do have a tendency to fly, breeder egg layer
    50        birds. 
    51 
    52   MS. STEEL:  May I just ask this:  Is that because the birds in 
    53        the broilers are younger or is that because they are
    54        heavier?
    55        A.  The breeder birds can be quite heavy and they can still
    56        fly, so it is not just weight related.
    57
    58   Q.   You said they were half the weight?
    59        A.  Weight for age.
    60

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