Patent ID: 7658165

Claim:
An apparatus for raising poultry comprising: a facility for housing the poultry, the facility comprising: a wall defining an interior of the facility: and at least one curtain opening, the at least one curtain opening being selectively opened or closed by a curtain; at least one fan opening in the wall of the facility; and a ventilation fan mounted in the at least one fan opening, the ventilation fan comprising: a fan housing configured to mount the fan into the at least one fan opening; a plurality of rotating fan blades; and a static regain cone coupled to the fan housing; wherein at least one of the fan housing, the plurality of rotating blades, the static regain cone, and another component of the ventilation fan has a configuration that permits the transmission of light through a material thereof; and one of a light absorbing coating and a light absorbing resin covers the material; thereby preventing undesirable transmission of light through the material; and a controller operably coupled to the ventilation fan and to the curtain and being configured to operate at least one of the ventilation fan and the curtain to limit the exposure of the interior of the facility to light to produce light cycles to mimic daylight duration variation representative of seasonal changes in the interior of the facility or being configured to limit the exposure of the interior of the facility to light to produce a brown-out lighting effect in the interior of the facility.