Abstract: A cage door assembly for easy one-hand operation is disclosed. The cage door is comprised of a pair of legs secured to the ends of a base member. The door is hingedly secured to a cage. An L-shaped hook is attached to each of the free ends of the legs and these hooks engage with cage wires. The door is opened by squeezing the legs together which disengages the hooks from the cage wires. A bracket is positioned above the door and extends between the legs to prevent those legs from being squeezed together. The bracket can be moved from between the legs by pushing it upwardly with the index finger of the hand being used to open the door. The legs can be squeezed together to disengage the hooks from the cage wires once the bracket is removed from between the legs. The door can easily be opened with one hand. A cage assembly incorporating the cage door is also disclosed which has a feed trough upon which the door can rest upon when opened so as to provide a platform.

Abstract: A bracket assembly which is capable of being erected without separate fasteners is disclosed. The bracket assembly comprises an upright, an arm having a hook at one end engaging the upright and having a specially-shaped notch in its underside, and a brace extending at an angle between the arm and the upright. One end of the brace has a tip which engages in the arm notch when the brace is pivoted upwardly. A tang on the other end of the brace extends through a hole in the upright to lock the assembly when bent against the upright.

Abstract: A cage and manure removal system for egg-laying poultry is disclosed. In the system, a bank of cages are disposed in pairs of rows in vertically-spaced tiers. A horizontally disposed manure dropping board overlies the cage rows in the lower tiers for collecting droppings excreted by poultry in the overlying cage rows. The droppings are periodically cleaned from the dropping boards by a manure scraping assembly which comprises a carriage mounted for movement along a monorail which overlies the cage bank and has a depending post mounting a series of augers adapted to travel along the top surfaces of the dropping boards. As the carriage advances and the augers rotate, the droppings are displaced inwardly on the dropping boards for collection in a collection pit located below the cage bank.A method of handling manure to promote drying is also disclosed.

Abstract: A truss for supporting cages in a poultry cage system comprises a pair of inclined upstanding legs and a series of vertically-spaced horizontal cross-members connected thereto by novel clips which are specially designed to enable the cross-members to be connected to the legs with a minimum of labor. Opposite ends of each cross-member have a pair of spaced apertures which register with a pair of similarly-spaced apertures in the truss legs. The clip has a front flange with a pair of rearwardly turned lugs which are received in the leg and arm apertures and which have hooks located below the lower edges of the apertures. The legs also have holes located below their apertures and below the lower edge of the cross-member, and the clip has a deformable angulated tab depending from the lower portion of the flange and extending into the holes in the legs.