Mist Cooling Hens in Cages by Fogging

IN THE summer hens in cages are exposed to two major sources of radiant heat—the roof and the ground. The apparent effectiveness of cooling live poultry with water has been discussed in an earlier paper (Wilson and Hillerman, 1952), as have methods of applying the water (Hart and Wilson, 1954; Wilson and Kelly, 1954). Herein are presented the results of three year’s investigation of the value of fogging (mist spraying) hens in cages. The objectives of these tests were (1) to determine the benefits of fogging, using mortality, egg production, egg weight, and egg shell thickness as indicators of comfort and (2) to find satisfactory criteria for designing poultry cooling systems. MATERIALS AND METHODS The procedure differed each year, but the objectives remained the same. All the tests were conducted at the University of California poultry farm at Davis, using two cage houses, which have previously been described in . . .