Abstract:
A hopper-trough feeding device for young turkeys or other fowl consisting of an inverted conical shaped feed storage hopper and circular feed trough dish combination with geometric proportions which virtually eliminates food contamination and optimize feeding rates. The feeder is useful in commercial brooder houses as a free standing, manually filled feeder until turkey poults reach an age where they can be removed from brood pens, at which time the feeder can be attached to existing automatic screw conveyor feed delivery systems as a replacement feeding device.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO DISCLOSURE DOCUMENT 
     This application is based on the Disclosure Document filed by John C. Bryant with the U.S. Patent Office on Sep. 23, 1994, entitled SANITARY POULTRY FEEDER. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to feeding systems for raising poultry and other domestic birds and animals on a commercial scale. In particular, this invention is directed to feeder apparatus of these systems which present and deliver feed, especially to turkeys and other poultry. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     In today&#39;s commercial brooder houses, young turkey poults are maintained in brood pens for several days and are fed from shallow open top feed pans. The feed becomes contaminated with bedding material and fecal matter when the turkeys walk into and around in the feed pans. The open top feed pans must also be refilled once or twice a day in a continuous operation in large brooder houses. After the turkey poults reach an age of approximately one week they are removed from the brood pens and allowed to roam freely through the brooder house where they feed from automatic feed delivery systems. The automatic feed systems consist of a screw conveyor 
     which delivers feed to a multitude of open circular feed pans. The birds are small enough for several weeks to climb into the feed pans where they contaminate the feed and block access to the feed for most other poults. 
     DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART 
     Applicants are aware of the following U.S. Patents concerning apparatus and methods of feed control for poultry or birds. 
     
         ______________________________________U.S. Pat. No.    Issue Date              Inventor   Title______________________________________848,492  03-26-1907              Rees       POULTRY FEEDER                         AND WATERER903,309  11-10-1908              Ottinger   FEED TROUGH1,365,367    01-11-1921              Bettenga   ANIMAL FEEDING                         DEVICE1,404,251    01-24-1922              Westenberger                         POULTRY FEEDER1,623,840    04-05-1927              Kassy      CHICKEN FEEDER2,222,369    11-19-1940              McLeod     CHICKEN FEEDER2,464,644    03-15-1949              Kwash      MODERN CHICK                         FEED CONTAINER2,667,858    02-02-1954              Cussotti   POULTRY FEEDER3,249,090    05-03-1966              Ripley     ANIMAL FEEDER4,995,343    02-26-1991              Cole       FEEDER                         APPARATUS______________________________________ 
    
     Rees U.S. Pat. No. 848,492 provides a simple, inexpensive, efficient, and ornamental device adapted for feeding and watering poultry, which would prevent waste of food and water. This device refurbishes the food and water automatically as it is consumed. 
     Ottinger U.S. Pat. No. 903,309 provides a feeding device for stock, poultry and the like, which has a conical bottom to allow automatic refurbishment of the feed trough. 
     Bettenga U.S. Pat. No. 1,365,367 provides an open top feeding device intended for feeding animals such as hogs. This device allows for drainage of liquids through the feed to keep the feed moist without getting soggy. 
     Westenberger U.S. Pat. No. 1,404,251 provides a feeding device which replenishes the food for the animals without scratching or throwing the food out of the device. This device also protects the young chicks while they are feeding during rain, and snow. 
     Kassy U.S. Pat. No. 1,623,840 provides a chicken feeder, wherein all waste in the feeding of chickens is eliminated and the feed tray is automatically maintained as long as the supply of feed is not entirely dissipated. 
     McLeod U.S. Pat. No. 2,222,369 provides a device to feed baby chicks from age one day to six weeks old, which prevents waste of feed. 
     Kwash U.S. Pat. No. 2,464,644 provides a poultry feeder which automatically refurbishes the feed tray and protects the feed from the weather. This device also protects the feed from being scattered and thereby contaminated by poultry droppings. 
     Cussotti U.S. Pat. No. 2,667,858 provides a poultry feeder which is economical and light-weight and is assembles easily to facilitate cleaning. 
     Ripley U.S. Pat. No. 3,249,090 provides a portable animal feeder to feed hay and other foods to cattle, in the shape of a hollow rectangular box. This device protects the feed from the elements to prevent spoilage. 
     Cole U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,343 provides a versatile feeder to automatically feed domestic birds and animals. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to improvements in turkey feeders of the hopper-trough classification and feeding apparatus used in commercial brooder houses as part of automatic feed delivery systems. 
     In today&#39;s commercial brooder houses, young turkey poults are maintained in brood pens for several days and are fed from shallow open top feed pans. The feed becomes contaminated with bedding material and fecal matter when the turkeys walk into and around in the feed pans. The open top feed pans must also be refilled once or twice a day in a continuous operation in large brooder houses. After the turkey poults reach an age of approximately one week they are removed from the brood pens and allowed to roam freely through the brooder house where they feed from automatic feed delivery systems. The automatic feed systems consist of a screw conveyor which delivers feed to a multitude of open circular feed pans. The birds are small enough for several weeks to climb into the feed pans where they contaminate the feed and block access to the feed for most other poults. 
     The invention consists of a conical shaped feed hopper which dispenses feed on demand into a circumferential trough. The geometric shape and size of the feeder components prevent turkey 
     poults from entering the feed to spread contamination without restricting access to the feed for consumption. 
     OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
     The primary objective of this invention is to provide a feeding device to be used in turkey brooder houses which will promote better turkey health and more rapid weight gain by increasing access to feed while eliminating feed contamination with fecal matter and bedding material. 
     Another objective of this invention is to provide a hopper-trough feeder with a specific geometric design which will maximize poult access to the feed for feeding and render it impossible for poults to stand or walk around in the feed trough. 
     Another objective of this invention is to provide a free standing hopper-trough feeder to replace the conventional open pan feeders now used in commercial brooder houses for feeding turkeys during the first few days of life, which will hold sufficient feed to support turkeys until they are ready to transition to an automatic conveyor feeding system without the need for refilling. 
     Still another objective of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus to replace the open feed pans used on most commercial automatic conveyor feed systems. 
     Still another objective of this invention is to provide a feeder which can be easily disassembled for cleaning and provide compact storage when not in use. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The foregoing and other objects will become more readily apparent by referring to the following detailed description and the appended drawings in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a plan view of the feed hopper. 
     FIG. 2 is a section view through the feed hopper. 
     FIG. 3 is an elevation of the feed hopper with a portion of the side wall broken away. 
     FIG. 4 is a plan view of the feed trough dish. 
     FIG. 5 is an elevation of the feed trough dish with a portion of the side wall broken away. 
     FIG. 6 is a section view through the feed trough dish. 
     FIG. 7 is an elevation of the assembled feeder with the hopper and trough dish partially broken away to show the interior and exterior features of the feeder. 
     FIG. 8 is a plan view of the adapter ring. 
     FIG. 9 is a section view through the adapter ring. 
     FIG. 10 is an elevation of the adapter ring. 
     FIG. 11 is an elevation of the assembled feeder attached to the adapter ring. 
     FIG. 12 is an enlarged view of the feed hopper threaded connection stud insert. 
     FIG. 13 is an enlarged view of the trough dish threaded connection sleeve insert. 
     FIG. 14 is a plan view of a first alternative embodiment of the invented feed hopper. 
     FIG. 15 is a section view through the feed hopper. 
     FIG. 16 is a plan view of the feed trough dish. 
     FIG. 17 is an elevation of the feed trough dish with a portion of the side wall broken away. 
     FIG. 18 is a section view through the feed trough dish. 
     FIG. 19 is an elevation of the feed hopper with a portion of the side wall broken away. 
     FIG. 20 is an elevation of the assembled feeder with the hopper and trough dish partially broken away to show the interior and exterior features of the feeder. 
     FIG. 21 is a plan view of a second alternative embodiment of the invented feed hopper. 
     FIG. 22 is a section view through the feed hopper. 
     FIG. 23 is a plan view of the feed trough dish. 
     FIG. 24 is an elevation of the feed trough dish with a portion of the side wall broken away. 
     FIG. 25 is a section view through the feed trough dish. 
     FIG. 26 is an elevation of the feed hopper with a portion of the side wall broken away. 
     FIG. 27 is an elevation of the assembled feeder with the hopper and trough dish partially broken away to show the interior and exterior features of the feeder. 
     FIG. 28 is a graph of turkey weight increase for birds using the invented feeder and for birds using a conventional feeder. 
     FIG. 29 is a table of turkey weight increase for birds using the invented feeder and for birds using a conventional feeder. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring now to the drawings, the feeder is composed of two components: feed storage hopper 1 and feed trough dish 2. 
     As shown in FIGS. 1 through 3, the feed storage hopper 1 consists of an inverted truncated cone or frustum shaped open top vessel. The floor 15 of said vessel is flat immediately adjacent to the peripheral wall 11 and has an integral concentric conical projection 4 rising out of the floor to facilitate feed distribution through oblong holes 5 symmetrically located in the peripheral wall 11. At the apex of the conical projection 4 is a threaded stud insert 16 projecting downward to allow connection to the trough dish 2. Four equally spaced outwardly projecting tabs 17 located at the top of the hopper wall 11 and slots 28 between said tabs provide means for quick connection to automatic feed conveyor systems using an adapter ring as shown in FIG. 11. The adapter ring will be connected to and remain in place on the distribution header of any commercial automatic feed conveying system. Bolster fins 12 ace located near the top of the hopper peripheral wall to prevent formation of a vacuum seal between feed hoppers when stacked together. 
     Referring to FIGS. 4 through 6, the feed trough dish 2 consists of a circular pan with outwardly sloping peripheral wall 10 of the same pitch as hopper peripheral wall 11. The trough dish has a flat circular floor 21 immediately adjacent to the peripheral wall 10 stepping up to an elevated flat concentric circular floor 22 with a concentric conical projection 18 to provide precise centering of the trough dish on the bottom of the feed hopper 1. At the apex of the conical projection 18 is a threaded sleeve insert 19 to allow attachment to hopper 1 by means of the threaded stud 16. The top of the trough dish peripheral wall 10 terminates with a semicircular rim 20 for stiffness. 
     Referring to FIG. 7, the hopper 1 and trough dish 2 together form the complete feeding device. When connected the bottom surface of the hopper floor 15 rests on the trough dish raised floor 22. The hopper has a smaller base diameter than the trough dish which forms a continuous circular feeding trough 3. Feed stored in the hopper 1 is dispensed through the holes 5 in the hopper peripheral wall 11 into the feed trough 3 by gravity. The holes 5 are set to an elevation which will prevent feed from spilling over the side of the trough dish. As feed is consumed by the turkey poults additional feed is dispensed automatically to the trough 3. Feed contamination is prevented in two ways. Turkey poults can not step into the feeding trough 3 because the slope of the hopper peripheral wall 11 is set to an angle which will not allow the center of gravity of a turkey poult to pass over the outer edge of the trough dish. Some prior art feeders accomplished this with barriers and intermittent openings which also limited access to the food. The hopper is tall enough to prevent turkey poults from jumping inside and contaminating the feed. 
     Referring to FIGS. 8 through 10, the adaptor ring 29, FIG. 8, consists of a circular ring 25 with alternating top and bottom tabs 8 and 9 on the inside of the ring to form a grappling slot for connection to the distribution header (not shown) of any commercial automatic feed conveying system. Four sets of cantilever arms 23 with tabs 24 project from the ring 25 on the four quadrants. The feeder is connected to the adapter ring by insertion of the four tabs 24 through the slots 28 at the top of the feed hopper and rotating approximately 45 degrees. Stops 26 and 27 located on the underside of hopper tabs 17 will prevent the feeder from &#34;walking off&#34; the adapter ring during operation of the feed conveyor. 
     Initially the feeder is used in brood pens to feed newborn turkey poults. To save the farm labor previously used for refilling open top feed pans, the hopper is sized to hold sufficient feed to last four to five days. When the poults are ready to be removed from the brood pens, the feeders can be attached to an existing automatic feed distribution system to supply the poults with a high volume of sanitary feed for the balance of their stay in the brooder house. 
     ALTERNATIVE EMBODIMENTS 
     While the invented feeding apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 to 13 is preferable, this same system will work with a bird feeder having a feed storage hopper 30, FIGS. 15, 19, 22 and 26. Hopper 30 has an inverted frustum geometry and is comprised of a bottom 32, a peripheral wall 34 and an open top 36. The hopper bottom 32 is flat adjacent to the peripheral wall 34 with a concentric conical projection 38 rising out of the bottom 32. Peripheral wall 34 has uniformly spaced feed distribution apertures 46 spaced from the bottom. These apertures can be virtually any geometric configuration, including but not limited to circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, triangles, octagons, hexagons or pentagons. Tabs 53 and 54 project inward from the inside of the hopper wall to provide a grappling point for connection to conveyor feed distribution systems. A feed trough dish 48 is provided with a flat floor 50 and a concentric cylindrical hub 52 rising out of the floor. Concentric cylindrical hub 52 can have threads 56 to facilitate a fixed attachment to feed storage hopper 30. The trough dish also has an outwardly sloping peripheral wall 60. 
     The feed storage hopper may be connected to the trough dish by either a threaded connection as illustrated in FIGS. 15 to 20 or a bayonet type connection as illustrated in FIGS. 22 to 27. The threaded connection is made by threads 42 in the bottom portion of the hopper conic projection 38 and threads 56 in the concentric cylindrical hub 52 of the trough dish. The bayonet type connection is achieved by means of a four point star shaped retainer spring 45. The points of the retainer spring project through slots 44 in the cylindrical hub 52 of the trough dish and slots 59 in the hopper conic projection 38. Quick disconnection may be achieved by application of pressure towards the center of the retainer spring 45 through a concentric hole 57 in the floor of the trough dish. 
     When the connecting means are engaged the feed storage hopper is securely fastened to the feed through. The feed storage hopper and the trough can be molded or configured as a single piece or it can be made of multiple pieces. The outwardly sloping peripheral wall of the trough preferably has a semicircular rim stiffener. 
     The feed storage hopper peripheral wall is outwardly sloping at a specific angle which will preclude a new born poult (such as a turkey or chicken) from passing its center of gravity, or body over the outer rim of the feed trough. The peripheral wall prevents poults from entering the feed trough to contaminate feed or block access to other poults for feeding. 
     While this unit is ideal for use with young turkeys, it can also be used with other poultry or by reducing the overall dimension it can be used with most any type of bird or foul. 
     EXAMPLES 
     Testing has been conducted comparing weight gain for young turkeys using the present invention and using a conventional feed trough. Turkeys fed with the present invention show weight gain increases of better than ten percent. 
     
                                           TABLE 1__________________________________________________________________________BIRD WEIGHT READINGS IN GRAMS ARE FOR 10 BIRD LOTSBIRD WEIGHT READINGS ARE FOR 5 BIRD LOTS ON DAY 20      CONVENTIONAL                NEW       CONVENTIONAL                                    NEW  DAY FEEDER    FEEDER                      DAY FEEDER    FEEDER__________________________________________________________________________  2   767       628   5   908       919      544       561       968       1025      557       725       833       1144                663Bird Average      62.3      64.4      90.3      102.9% Difference         3.5                 14.0  9   1335      1514  10  1495      1797      1251      1531      1525      1497      1268      1623      1401      1910                          1600      1822                          1637      1772Bird Average      128.5     155.6     153.2     176.0% Difference         21.1                14.9  12  2052      2175  13  2100      2518      2078      2145      2250      2204      2032      2700      2041      2443                2060      2128      2425Bird Average      205.4     227.0     213.0     239.8% Difference         10.5                12.6  16  2374      2690  20  1885      1998      2617      2894      1823      1946      2643      2859      1573      1950      2309      2650      1648      1933                          1550      1875Bird Average      248.6     277.3     339       388% Difference         11.6                14.4__________________________________________________________________________ 
    
     
                                           TABLE 2__________________________________________________________________________UNITS ARE POUNDS GROUPS OF 4    UNITS ARE GRAMS GROUPS OF 2      CONVENTIONAL                NEW            CONVENTIONAL                                         NEW  DAY FEEDER    FEEDER     DAY FEEDER    FEEDER__________________________________________________________________________  29  6.23      8.17       37  2093      2374      6.98      8.28           2850      2366      6.17      7.40           2785      2515      6.81      7.67           1964      2260      7.09      7.6            2130      2815      5.68      6.67           2279      2590      7.12      7.71           2665      2540      6.48      8.44           2502      2162      6.32      7.49           1953      2830      5.90      7.64           2090      2720      5.88      8.22           2055      2607                7.49           2446      2656                8.17           2529      2864                7.18           2536      2580                6.79           2300      2580                7.20                8.35      70.66     130.4          35177.0   38459.0Bird Average      729.0     871.0 GRAMS    1172.5    1281.9                                               GRAMS% Difference         19.5                     9.3__________________________________________________________________________ 
    
     Table 3 shows the results of a large scale test of the invented feeder with a flock size greater than 10,000 turkeys. 
     
                       TABLE 3______________________________________UNITS ARE GRAMS  CONVEN-  TIONAL    NEW               WEIGHTDAY    FEEDER    FEEDER    % Increase                              INCREASE______________________________________2      62.3      64.4      3.5     2.25      90.3      102.9     14.0    12.69      128.5     155.6     21.1    27.110     153.2     176.0     14.9    22.812     205.4     227.0     10.5    21.613     213.0     239.8     12.6    26.816     248.6     277.3     11.6    28.820     339.2     388.1     14.4    48.929     729.1     871.1     19.5    142.037     1172.6    1282.0    9.3     109.4147    13598.9   14806.6   8.9     1207.6______________________________________ Day 147 represents harvest day. 
    
     FIG. 28 is a graphical depiction of the increase in weight for birds using the invented feeder, labeled as NEW FEEDER, as compared to weight gain for a similar group using a conventional feeder, labeled as OLD FEEDER. The invented feeder in this test was used for thirty (30) days. As shown in FIG. 29, the weights of the birds using the invented feeder averaged better than ten (10%) percent over the birds using the conventional feeder. Surprisingly even after the use of the invented feeder was discontinued the birds which had started on the invented feeder still had an average weight in excess of eight (8%) percent over the birds that started life with the conventional feeder. 
     SUMMARY OF THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
     From the foregoing, it is readily apparent that we have invented an improved feeding device to be used in turkey brooder houses which will promote better turkey health and more rapid weight gain by increasing access to feed while eliminating feed contamination with fecal matter and bedding material. This invention provides a hopper-trough feeder with a specific geometric configuration which will maximize poult access to the feed for feeding and render it impossible for poults to stand or walk around in the feed trough. As a free standing hopper-trough feeder this apparatus replaces the conventional open pan feeders now used in commercial brooder houses for feeding turkeys during the first few days of life, which will hold sufficient feed to support turkeys until they are ready to transition to an automatic conveyor feeding system without the need for refilling. Beneficially this apparatus replaces the open feed pans used on most commercial automatic conveyor feed systems. Easily disassembled for cleaning this apparatus also provides compact storage when not in use. 
     It is to be understood that the foregoing description and specific embodiments are merely illustrative of the best mode of the invention and the principles thereof, and that various modifications and additions may be made to the apparatus by those skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention, which is therefore understood to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.