The hen pan feeding system carries feed along the length of the house and presents it at a pan the birds feed from directly. It is built for hens, so each pan carries a grill around the rim that controls how the bird reaches the feed.
Each pan is moulded in PP. The feed level adjusts through twelve settings, so the depth in the pan can be matched to the flock as it grows. One pan serves 12 to 14 birds, and the grill has 16 openings.
The spacing between the grill bars adjusts as well, and that is the setting that does the work on feed cost. Set correctly it lets the bird feed normally while keeping it from throwing feed out of the pan onto the floor. The shape of the pan is designed around the same problem. Together they cut the feed lost over a run.
PP was chosen for the working life it gives in a poultry house. It resists corrosion, it stays tough rather than turning brittle, and it holds up in a building that is humid and dusty all year. The pans come apart and go back together easily, which matters at cleanout when every pan in the house has to be stripped, washed and refitted between flocks.
Feed reaches the pans through a conveying tube that runs the length of the line. The inspection ports along it open for checking and cleaning without taking the run apart.
The system is laid out so the lines cover the floor area evenly and every bird in the house has a pan within reach.
