University of Saskatchewan hatches plans for new egg-laying facility

Changes coming to the University of Saskatchewan could lead to lower egg prices while improving animal welfare.

A national ban against the conventional cages for egg-laying chickens will take effect for all Canadian producers in 2036, impacting the current housing systems at the U of S.

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Poultry professor, Karen Schwean-Lardner, who works in the school’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources, said these types of facilities were brought into production in the 1930s, with good reasons for them at the time.

University of Saskatchewan poultry professor Karen Schwean-Lardner shows off her turkey tattoo. When talking about the new facility, she said “I can’t stand it. I’m losing my voice because I’m excited. I do love chickens,” adding how there’s plans to eventually get a more chicken-themed tattoo. (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)

Conventional cages are small square cages with a sloped floor where eggs can roll out. They allowed producers to see a sick bird and do something about it, while also providing an area for the chickens’ waste to go out every day. Those facilities, however, have become outdated.

“It’s a small space with no perches. Birds go up when they are afraid or when they’re stressed they like to go to perches. There’s none in there,” Schwean-Lardner said.

Also, “the most important behavioural activity for birds is to be able to nest. They have no nest, and so we actually see them pace in those cages because they don’t have a nest,” she continued, adding how there’s no place for the chickens to forage in the current cages, either.

But, with the help of Saskatchewan Egg Producers, who’ve committed $3 million, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation Fund, who’re providing $6.2 million, the UofS is close to the point where it’ll build a new $15.6 million poultry-laying facility in the next two to three years.

Although, for Schwean-Lardner – whose passion for poultry is evident from the turkey tattoo on her left wrist – the upgrade can’t come soon enough.

“It cannot be a couple of years because Karen’s considering retirement, but I won’t retire if we get that barn up next summer,” she said.

For the birds

The new facility will feature three housing systems, all of which will have perches, nests and places for the birds to forage.

One of those three is the enriched housing system for egg-laying hens. It will have small units with fewer chickens.

Then there will also be 10 individual rooms, each one operating like a “little mini barn,” housing free-run chickens who can move and fly around, according to Schwean-Lardner.

These rooms will have, “separate ventilation systems and heating systems and lighting systems,” she said.

(Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)

The final type of housing will be for free-range chickens, giving the birds access to outdoor space. In total, the new facility will be able to house 6,000 chickens.

Each housing system has pros and cons, according to Schwean-Lardner, something she doesn’t think many consumers understand.

For example, the chickens in enriched housing won’t have enough space to fly. But, since the groups are smaller, they can develop strong hierarchies. In comparison, even though free-range chickens can go outside to play, that presents bio-security concerns.

Ultimately, the new facility will be mean better lives for egg-producing chickens.

“It’s doing what’s right for Canadian agriculture, and for Canadian consumers and birds,” Schwean-Lardner said.

Consumers soon can ‘bawk’ at birds

Another feature of the future barn is it will have a bio-secure meeting area with glass viewing walls, separate from the birds, where people can come in and actually see the differences in the three housing systems.

“You can come here and you could see, ‘Oh, that’s the egg that I’m buying in a free-run situation or free-range,’” Schwean-Lardner said.

“It helps to connect Canadian consumers to agriculture and that’s so exciting. That’s important and it’s hard to do when a bio-security is such a risk in barns,” she said.

The chickens in the school’s current facility won’t be making the transition into the new one (pictured here), instead getting euthanized. “We would never take a bird from another facility into a new facility,” Schwean-Lardner said, explaining how it poses a bio-security risk. (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)

The facility will also enable researchers to conduct studies on floor eggs, testing lighting systems so that this doesn’t happen.

Schwean-Lardner explained how, in a free-run system, if a chicken lays an egg onto the ground, it’s generally thrown out.

If research can be done to avoid that, though, “we can increase the number of eggs that actually get to market,” thereby reducing prices, according to Schwean-Lardner.