LAYING HOUSE

in animal husbandry, a building or enclosure for maintaining laying flocks of domestic fowl, usually chickens, containing nests, lighting, roosting space, waterers, and feed troughs. Feeders and waterers may be automatic. In the largest houses, feed storage, egg room, and utility space may be in a centre section, with laying-house wings in both directions. Construction ranges from relatively open shelters to fully enclosed and insulated buildings, depending on the climate. In the cage system, birds are confined in individual wire mesh cages arranged in rows in a stairstep alignment with service aisles between rows. Feed and water troughs are attached to the front of the cages; eggs roll down the sloping cage floors into a collection area.