Battery Cages in Kenya — A-type, H-type & Broiler

A-type Battery Cage — KShs 38,000

The A-type is the most popular layer cage in Kenya and the one you see on most commercial farms. The design is pyramid-shaped — each tier is stepped back slightly from the one below it, like a staircase. This gives you two big advantages over the H-type: first, natural ventilation is better because air flows freely around each tier without the bird above dropping manure directly on the bird below. Second, it is easier to access every bird for health checks, egg collection, and treatment. This is the cage for farmers who want reliability and ease of management. It holds 128 hens at 4 birds per compartment — that is 32 compartments across 4 tiers. With Isa Brown or Isinya hens at 300 eggs per year each, 128 birds gives you roughly 38,400 eggs per year — about 1,280 trays at KShs 400 per tray, that is KShs 512,000 revenue per year from one cage. Think about that number before you decide how many cages to start with.

H-type Battery Cage — KShs 48,000

The H-type cage is built for farms where floor space is the main constraint. Its design is vertical and flat-backed — all 4 tiers are stacked directly above each other in a straight column. At only 4 feet wide compared to 8 feet for the A-type, you can fit more H-type cages into the same house and house more birds per square metre of floor. This matters a lot when you are paying per square foot for housing construction or working in an existing building. The H-type also has manure collection trays on each tier, which keeps the house cleaner and reduces ammonia levels compared to older cage designs. The trade-off is that the vertical design requires more mechanical ventilation — a poorly ventilated H-type house will have ammonia problems that the A-type handles better passively. If you have good ventilation or are installing fans, the H-type is the more efficient choice for maximum bird density.

Broiler Battery Cage — KShs 30,000

Most Kenyan farmers raise broilers on deep litter — birds on the floor on sawdust or rice husks. It works, but it has problems: litter gets wet from drinker spillage and bird droppings, wet litter causes coccidiosis, and floor birds fight for feeder and drinker space, which means uneven growth and higher feed conversion ratios. The broiler cage solves all of this. Birds are raised in tiers on wire mesh — droppings fall through the mesh onto manure trays below. The floor stays clean and dry. No litter means no coccidiosis from wet floor. Nipple drinkers mean no spilled water. Each bird has access to feed and water without competition from dominant birds. The result is more uniform growth, lower medication costs, and a better feed conversion ratio. At 72–80 birds per cage and 6-week cycles, you can run 8 cycles per year. Each cycle at 2.2kg average weight and KShs 350/kg returns KShs 55,000–62,000 in revenue from one cage. The cage pays for itself in the first cycle.

A-type vs H-type vs Broiler