J. agric. Engng Res.

(2000) 75, 177}187

doi:10.1006/ jaer.1999.0497, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

Heat and Moisture Production of Broilers kept on Straw Bedding

S+ren Pedersen1; M. Gaardbo Thomsen2
1Research Centre Bygholm, Danish Institute of Agricultural Science, P.O. Box 536, DK-8700, Horsens, Denmark; e-mail of corresponding
author: Soeren.Pedersen@agrsci.dk
2Research Centre Foulum, Danish Institute of Agricultural Science, P.O. Box 50, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark; e-mail: MartinG.Thomsen@agrsci.dk

(Received 11 February 1999; accepted in revised form 14 October 1999)

Knowledge of broiler heat production is traditionally based on results from climatic chambers. The advantage
of such measurements is a high degree of accuracy of the results obtained under speci"c conditions; the
disadvantage is that the housing conditions are often quite di!erent from those of conventional broiler
production.
Broiler heat production was investigated over "ve week periods in three individual trials, each comprising
two identical broiler houses with straw bedding. The investigations were based on heat and moisture balances,
taking into account the following: internal and external temperatures; relative humidity; bedding temperature;
internal carbon dioxide concentration; ventilation #ow; supplemental heat including light bulbs; broiler weight;
feed consumption; water consumption; and animal activity. The results show that for broilers kept on deep litter
(50}100 mm), the total heat production was of the same level as that given by common calculation rules, but the
sensible heat production was about 17% lower than expected. Therefore, for di!erent housing systems it seems
to be necessary to distinguish between the general level of &&animal'' heat production and the heat production on
&&house'' level.
( 2000 Silsoe Research Institute

animal heat and moisture production in conventional

Notation rearing systems. Most of the present knowledge is based
on experiments far removed from conventional condi-
a heat production coe$cient tions, e.g. from experiments in climate chambers with
hpu 1 hpu is de"ned as a quantity of animals re#ective metal walls and ceiling and a limited #oor
producing 1000 W in total heat at 203C surface. Such a microclimate is very much a!ected by
k correction factor for sensible heat radiation from walls and animals, whereas the microcli-
s
m body weight, kg mate for broiler chickens in a commercial house prim-
n exponent arily is a!ected by the surrounding animals. Another
Q total heat production at 203C, W di!erence between the conditions in climatic chambers
t
Q* total heat production at the temperature t, W and normal housing conditions is related to the possibili-
t
Q sensible heat, W ties of evaporation of water from the bedding and the
s
Q latent heat, W drinking bowls. It is especially the information on the
l
Q evaporation, W division of total heat into latent and sensible heat which
ev
t temperature, 3C is important. Investigations performed by Pedersen et al.
; heat transmission coe$cient W3C~1 m~2 (1998) have shown that the indoor relative humidity in
animal houses for both cattle, pigs and poultry is often
higher than when calculated by standard calculation
1. Introduction procedures, because evaporated water from wet feed,
bedding and spilt drinking water is not taken into ac-
In order to control the indoor climate in broiler count. The problem can be illustrated by an example of
houses, is it necessary to have accurate information on laying hens in cages and hens in aviary/perchery systems.
0021-8634/00/020177#11 $35.00/0 177 ( 2000 Silsoe Research Institute
178 S . PE D ER S EN ; M . G A AR D B O TH O M S E N
In SaK llvik and Pederen (1999) it is seen that sensible heat
at 203C is only 52% of the total heat produced by
aviary/perchery systems, whereas for hens in cages it is
69%. The reason is that the hens are able to scratch in the
deep litter in aviary/perchery systems, thereby releasing
vapour, while the hens in cages have no opportunity to
scratch in litter and manure. Also, for broilers, di!erent
housing conditions will a!ect the distribution between
sensible and latent heat. Therefore, the purpose of this
investigation of broiler heat production has been to
examine if the heat production for present production
systems, with modern international chicken lines, corr-
esponds to the existing calculation rules. The analyses are
based on heat and moisture balance equations, as de-
scribed in detail in Pedersen et al. (1998), and they
will not be discussed further in this paper. The analyses
have all been carried out with reference to conventional
equations.
2. Equations for broiler heat production
2.1. ¹otal heat production
Heat dissipation from animals to the environment
takes place as sensible heat, divided into radiation, con-
duction and convection and in latent heat as evapor-
ation.
The total heat production of broilers under laboratory
conditions is well known from literature, e.g. Thorbek
and Jensen (1985), but only a few investigations have
been made under commercial production conditions, e.g.
Feddes et al. (1984) and Brunsch (1998).
Based on literature published before 1978, Str+m
(1978) has formerly developed a set of equations for
calculation of the heat production of cattle, pigs and
poultry, which is primarily based on laboratory condi-
tions. For broilers the total heat production is given by
Q "a m0>5 (1)
t the indoor relative humidity has an e!ect (Chwalibog &
where Q is the total heat production at 203C in W, a is
t their experiments with the literature as regards the total
a numerical constant in W kg~0>5 and given a value of
10; and m is the body weight in kg.
For temperatures di!ering from 203C, the total heat
production can be adjusted by the introduction of a tem-
perature correction [4]10~5(20!t)3#1] common for
cattle, pigs and poultry (Str+m, 1978), which leads to the
following equation:
Q *"10m0>5(4]10~5 (20!t)3#1) (2)
t
where: t is temperature in 3C, Q* is total heat production
t
in W at the temperature t, 20 is a numerical constant in
3C, 1 is a dimensionless constant, and 4]10~5 is a nu-
merical constant in 0C~3.
Animal heat production has been the theme of a work-
ing group (Commission Internationale du GeH nie Rural)
appointed by CIGR (1984), and here the exponent for
m in Eqn (2) for total heat production was adjusted
according to
Q*"10m0>75(4]10~5(20!t)3#1) (3)
t
Equations (2) and (3) give the same total heat production
at a broiler weight of 1 kg. Chwalibog et al. (1985a)
experimented with broilers kept on 50}100 mm layers of
wood shavings in climatic chambers, where the total heat
production was based on the oxygen consumption and
the carbon dioxide production. It was found that the
total heat production was dependent on the ambient
temperature. At ambient temperatures between 20 and
283C, the total heat production was reduced by
0)33 W/3C or 3%/3C for a broiler of about 1 kg, which is
much higher than that expressed by Eqn (3), where the
reduction is less than 0)3%/3C within a range 20}243C.
At ambient temperatures of 20, 24 and 283C, the total
heat production, according to Chwalibog et al. (1985a),
can be expressed by:
Q "10)50m0>79 at ambient temperature of 200C, (4)
t
Q "9)21m0>79 at ambient temperature of 240C, (5)
t
Q "8)09m0>75 at ambient temperature of 280C. (6)
t
The above equations show slightly di!erent heat pro-
ductions at di!erent ambient temperatures, at the same
broiler weight. The reasons for that are many, but as
shown by Chwalibog (1990), the ambient temperature
has a signi"cant e!ect on the heat production. Based on
experiments by J+rgensen et al. (1996), the coe$cient in
Eqn (3) can be calculated as 9)6 for a "xed exponent of
0)75, which is in good agreement with the above-men-
tioned results achieved by Chwalibog (1990). As pointed
out by Reece and Lott (1982a,b) and Thomsen (1987), the
heat production is a!ected by the bedding type. Also,
Eggum, 1989). Reece and Lott (1982b) have compared
speci"c heat production for the years 1960}1981, but no
signi"cant di!erence was found, in spite of the fact that
the weight gain rate of the broilers was much higher in
1981 than in 1960.
2.2. Sensible heat production
The results from measurements on sensible heat pro-
duction are rare, because sensible heat production is not
normally estimated for metabolic experiments. Sensible
heat is usually calculated as the di!erence between total
 HE A T AN D M O IS TU RE PR OD U C TI ON OF BR OIL E RS
heat and latent heat (e.g. Chwalibog et al., 1985b). Reece
and Lott (1982a,b) calculated the sensible heat from
measurements of air replacement in a climatic chamber,
based on the temperature di!erence between in-
coming and outgoing air and the temperature drop
from the inside chamber surface to the outside chamber
surface.
The sensible heat can be calculated according to Str+m
(1978) and CIGR (1984):
Q "Q* (0)8}1)85]10~7(t#10)4) (7)
s t
where Q is the sensible heat in W (0)8}1)85]10~7
s two pens of 4)5 m]16)70 m, an area of 75 m2, separated
(t #10)4) is a common factor for the proportion of
sensible heat at di!erent temperatures for cattle, pigs and
poultry, 10 is a numerical constant in 3C, 1)85]10~7 is
a constant in 3C~4, and 0)8 is a dimensionless constant.
The relation between ambient temperature, total heat
and sensible heat, respectively, according to Eqns (3) and
(7), are shown in Fig. 1. Latent heat is the di!erence
between the curves for total and sensible heat.
Based on measurements and calculations made by
Chwalibog et al. (1985a), the following equation was
developed for calculation of broiler sensible heat at an
ambient temperature of 243C:
Q "9)21m0>79!4)91m0>68 (8)
s #ow was found to be less than 2% at maximum capacity.
Feddes et al. (1984) investigated the heat production of
broilers in two identical conventional broiler houses in
Canada: house A with 8000 broilers (14.2 broilers/m2)
and house B with 7000 broilers (12)2 broilers/m2). The
sensible heat was less dependent on temperatures than as
shown in Fig. 1. At high indoor temperatures, the sen-
sible heat is higher than that given by Eqn (7). Results
from the EU-project PL 900 703, Pedersen et al. (1998),
showed the same tendency for laying hens in cages.
Fig. 1. Total and sensible heat for a heat producing unit, hpu,
where 1 hpu is dexned a quantity of animals producing 1000 W in
total heat at 203C; , total; , sensible
179
3. Materials and methods
3.1. ¹he experimental houses
A total of three experiments on broiler heat production
were carried out in two identical houses at Research
Centre Foulum. Experiment 1, which was considered an
early summer experiment, started on 30 April 1996. Ex-
periment 2, which started on 13 August 1996, was a sum-
mer experiment, and Experiment 3, which was started on
21 January 1997, was a winter experiment. The houses,
which were numbered 3 and 4, were each divided into
by a central passage. Each room was littered with chop-
ped straw and equipped with water nipples and feeders.
The houses, which were made of common Danish build-
ing materials, had insulated brick walls and insulated
asbestos roofs. Each house was ventilated by a negatively
pressurized ventilation system, consisting of inlets in the
outer walls and an exhaust fan in the roof. The exhaust
part was equipped with a device for measuring fan capa-
city, consisting of an air#ow-driven impeller with an
output signal proportionally to the #ow, i.e. a measuring
fan. Before the start of Experiment 1, the measuring fan
was calibrated in a test rig and checked again before
Experiments 2 and 3. The measuring error of ventilation
Due to incorrect adjustment of the damper openings in
respect to fan capacity for Experiment 1, the negative air
pressure in the broiler houses was too low to avoid
uncontrolled air exchange through the inlet valves under
strong wind conditions. Therefore, the measured fan ca-
pacity was not taken into consideration as the true capa-
city for Experiment 1.
3.2. Stocking density and number of broilers
The number of broilers in both Experiments 1 and
3 was 7200, corresponding to 24 broilers per m2. In
Experiment 2, the number of broilers was only 6000,
corresponding to 20 broilers per m2. In all experiments,
a commercial line combination (Ross 208) of mixed sexes
was used.
3.3. =ater and feed
In all three experiments, the broilers had free access to
water and feed throughout the rearing period. In Ex-
periment 1, the broilers were fed a commercial starter and
grower diet. In Experiments 2 and 3, the animals were
fed a non-commercial diet based on wheat and soya-
bean meal, containing 21)8% of protein and 12)95 MJ
180 S . PE D ER S EN ; M . G A AR D B O TH O M S E N
metabolizable energy per kg of feed during the "rst 16
days, followed by a diet containing 20)2% of protein and
13)21 MJ metabolizable energy per kg of feed.
3.4. ¹emperature and relative humidity
In all experiments, the ambient temperature was 333C
for the "rst three days, after which the temperature was
gradually reduced by 0)53C per day to 223C. From then,
the temperature was kept constant.
In Experiments 1 and 2, the relative humidity was
aimed to be 45% in week 1, 50% in week 2, 55% in week
3, 60% in week 4, and subsequently 65%. Owing to
a relatively high consumption of supplemental heat for
Experiments 1 and 2, the equivalent relative humidity
levels in Experiment 3 were accepted to be 5% higher
than for Experiments 1 and 2 in order to reduce the need
of supplemental heat.
3.5. Animal activity
The animal activity was measured with equipment
based on infrared detectors, (Pedersen & Pedersen, 1995),
and the activity is expressed relatively to the average
activity for the whole production period.
3.6. ¸ight regime
Twenty-four hour lighting of the same brightness (ap-
prox 20 lux) was used during the entire growing period in
all three experiments.
3.7. Registrations
3.7.1. Production parameters
Measurements were taken daily for mortality statistics
and water consumption. The animals were weighed every
second week. The feed consumption was calculated at the
ages of 28 and 38 days, respectively. The animal activity
was recorded continuously.
3.7.2. Outdoor and indoor climate
The outdoor climate regarding temperature, relative
humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, wind speed and
wind direction was recorded hourly as averages of eight
measurements by a data-logging system with radio te-
lemetric transmission to a mobile laboratory. The indoor
climate regarding temperature and relative humidity 0)1
and 1)0 m above #oor level and the carbon dioxide con-
centration 1)5 m above the #oor were measured hourly as
averages of eight measurements. The bedding temper-
ature in two locations per house was measured manually
every third day.
3.7.3. Others
The ventilation #ow was measured hourly as an aver-
age of eight measurements, and the supplemental heat
was recorded manually on a diurnal basis.
3.8. Correction for evaporation of water from the litter
In this investigation, the measured latent heat produc-
tion is examined in relation to the latent heat production
calculated as total heat production according to Eqn (3)
minus the sensible heat production according to Eqn (7).
Because the equations are mainly based on experiments
carried out under laboratory conditions, the moisture
production calculated by Eqn (3) minus Eqn (7) is mainly
to be considered as the &animal' moisture production,
where the evaporation of spilt drinking water and the
evaporation from litters are limited. On a house scale, the
water evaporation will normally be higher than at animal
scale, and the di!erence between animal scale and house
scale can be expressed by Eqns (9)}(11).
Total heat on animal level:
Q*"Q #Q (9)
t S l
where Q is sensible heat in W, and Q is latent heat in W.
S l
The heat to be used for evaporation of water (680 Wh
per kg of water) in a house can only be taken from the
sensible heat, which is why total heat on house level can
be expressed as
Q*"Q k #Q #Qev, (10)
t s s l
where Q is evaporation of water from the litter mat in
e7
W, and k is a correction factor which together with
s
Q expresses the sensible heat adjusted for sensible heat
s
converted to latent heat Q .
ev
Equation (10) can be rearranged to
k "(Q*!Q !Q )/Q . (11)
s t l ev s
4. Results
4.1. ¹he performance of the chicken
Performance results for the three experiments are
shown in Table 1 for 0!28 days, 29!38 days and for the
whole 38-day period. As intended, the production data
correspond very well to the levels of practice regarding
mortality, weight gain and feed conversion (kg diet /kg
chicken).
 HE A T AN D M O IS TU RE PR OD U C TI ON OF BR OIL E RS 181

Table 1
Production parameters for the experiments

Period, Parameter Experiment 1* Experiment 2 Experiment 3

day House 3 House 4 House 3 House 4 House 3 House 4

0}28 Mortality % 2)9 3)0 2)0 2)2 1)2 1)6

Weight at 28 days, g 1316 1315 1248 1243 1163 1161
Feed/broiler, g 1814 1827 1678 1687 1667 1655
kg feed/kg broiler 1)38 1)39 1)34 1)36 1)43 1)43
29}38 Mortality, % 0)7 1)4 0)3 0)4
Weight gain, g 664 643 602 611
Feed/broiler, g 1429 1383 1239 1241
kg feed/kg gain 2)15 2)15 2)06 2)03
0}38 Mortality, % 2)7 3)6 1)5 2)0
Weight at 38 days, g 1912 1886 1765 1772
Feed/broiler, g 3107 3070 2906 2896
kg feed/kg broiler 1)63 1)63 1)65 1)63

*The omitted results are due to unforeseen events, which make the results obtained after 35 days unrealistic. Therefore, no data
for days 29}38 and for days 0}38 are available.

4.2. Outdoor and indoor climate 4.3. Supplemental heat

The results of the outdoor climate measurements are
presented in Table 2. The indoor temperature and hu-
midity averages for "ve day periods are also shown in
Table 2. It can be seen that variations in the outdoor
climate re#ect the season of the year; early summer, late
summer and winter, respectively, whereas the indoor
climate very closely re#ects the intended conditions. In
Table 2, the "gures also re#ect that a higher relative
indoor humidity was accepted in Experiment 3.
The consumption of supplemental heat (including
light) per animal is shown in Fig. 2.
In Experiment 1, the consumption of supplemental
heat is nearly constant over the rearing period, in spite of
the fact that both the outdoor temperature and the ani-
mal heat production increase which should have led to
a reduced need of supplemental heat during this period.
The reason is that it was intended to keep the relative
humidity below 45% in week 1, below 50% in week 2,

Table 2
Outdoor and indoor temperature and relative humidity (RH) based on an average of 5 day periods

Broiler House Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Experiment 3

age, day
Outdoor Indoor Outdoor Indoor Outdoor Indoor
Temp., RH, Temp., RH, Temp., RH, Temp., RH, Temp., RH, Temp., RH,
3C % 3C % 3C % 3C % 3C % 3C %

1}5 3 6)3 86)0 } 41)1 18)6 73)9 33)1 43)3 !0)7 94)7 33)3 41)2
4 33)1 41)5 33)6 41)5 33)0 40)5
6}10 3 6)8 72)1 28)3 38)7 22)5 62)3 30)1 44)7 2)2 89)1 29)9 48)4
4 30)0 43)7 30)6 42)3 29)9 49)8
11}15 3 10)0 84)1 25)3 52)8 16)7 80)6 28)1 49)3 0)3 80)3 26)8 52)8
4 27)0 50)1 28)3 50)5 27)5 54)3
16}20 3 7)8 97)0 23)3 60)1 14)9 77)4 25)6 53)5 4)7 85)6 23)4 58)9
4 24)1 59)1 24)9 56)7 24)6 61)0
21}25 3 10)7 90)8 21)5 64)6 13)2 71)8 22)9 54)7 1)1 89)4 23)1 63)8
4 22)1 65)8 23)1 55)3 22)4 66)7
26}30 3 11)5 84)5 22)3 67)5 11)9 75)4 22)3 57)9 2)1 83)4 20)7 67)5
4 22)7 65)2 22)8 59)8 22)1 70)2
31}35 3 13)2 80)6 22.7 60)1 11)1 80)8 22)7 60)3 7)2 85)4 21)4 70)5
4 22)9 64)0 23)1 62)6 22)2 70)1
182 S . PE D ER S EN ; M . G A AR D B O TH O M S E N

during that winter period was lower than in Experiment

2 under summer conditions. This clearly shows that the
maximum set point for relative humidity is critical with
respect to the need of supplemental heat. If the set point
is too low, it can lead to an extremely high-energy con-
sumption.

4.4. =ater consumption

The water consumption was registered throughout the

rearing period for all three experiments. The recordings
showed a nearly linear development, resulting in a con-
sumption of approximately 10 l of water per 1000
broilers at day 1, increasing to 300 l of water per day per
1000 broilers at day 35.

4.5. Animal activity

The results for animal activity, shown in Fig. 3, are

expressed in per cent relative to the average of 36 days for
houses 3 and 4. In Experiment 1, measurements in house
3 were omitted, because of measurement problems. The
"gure shows that the animal activity increased over the
"rst two weeks in Experiments 1 and 3, after which it
decreased, because the broilers moved less. For Ex-
periment 2, there was an increase in animal activity over
the "rst three weeks, after which the activity decreases.
The reason is probably that the animal density was
only 20 chickens per m2 in Experiment 2, unlike 24
Fig. 2. Supplemental heating in the houses, for (a) Experiment 1,
chickens per m2 in Experiments 1 and 3, for which reason
(b) Experiment 2, (c) Experiment 3; , House 3; ,
House 4 the possibility for the animals to move around was
improved.

below 55% in week 3, below 60% in week 4, and below

65% in the following weeks, and that can only be ful"lled
by using supplemental heat. For Experiment 2 with high-
er outdoor temperature than in Experiment 1 and with
the same maximums limits for relative humidity, the need
of supplemental heat for keeping the humidity under the
limit was much too high. The use of supplemental heat
increased during the "rst three weeks to keep the relative
humidity below the set point, when the outdoor relative
humidity is high in combination with high outdoor tem-
peratures. Only for the fourth week, the need for supple-
mental heat was suddenly reduced to a low level because
of a slightly lower outdoor relative humidity (see Table 2).
This shows that the need of supplemental heat is very
sensitive to the allowable indoor relative humidity, espe-
cially during summer periods. Therefore, it was decided Fig. 3. Animal activity (average activity for the xrst 36 days
in Experiment 3 to accept a 5% higher relative humidity, "100%), for: ------, Experiment 1; , Experiment 2;
and as shown in Fig. 2, the need of supplemental heat , Experiment 3
 HE A T AN D M O IS TU RE PR OD U C TI ON OF BR OIL E RS
4.6. Bedding temperature
For the last part of the rearing period, experiences
from Experiment 1 showed that the temperature of the
bedding was extremely high. The reason is probably that
the broilers take up much room and make up a &carpet'
under which the temperature is high, because of the heat
liberation from the broilers and from the decomposition
of the litter mat. In Experiment 2 during the "rst part of
the rearing period, the temperature measured 0)1 m
above the bedding was about 13C lower than the room
temperature, corresponding to the normal temperature
distribution in a room with the lowest temperatures
at the #oor. At the end of the production period, the
temperature increased to about 23C above the room
temperature.
The bedding temperature, measured in the middle of
the bedding, increased to 133C above the room temper-
ature, as shown in Fig. 4. In Experiment 3, where a 5%
higher relative humidity was accepted, moist areas of the
bedding were observed. Here, the bedding temperature
was much lower in the places where the bedding was wet
than where the bedding was dry. During the fourth week
of the rearing period, the temperature in the bedding was
Fig. 4. Temperature diwerence between the bedding temperature
and the ambient temperature in relation to ages of broilers, for:
(a) Experiment 2; (b) Experiment 3; House 3;
House 4
183
43C higher in the dry areas and 43C lower in the wet
areas than that shown in Fig. 4. During the "fth week,
where the broilers almost "lled up the entire #oor, the
moist bedding dried out, and the temperature was nearly
as in the other areas. Even if the indoor air temperature
was reduced from 333C to about 223C during the grow-
ing period, the bedding temperature was only about 313C
at day 1, increasing to about 353C, which indicates that
after 35 days the micro-climate would be much warmer
than that indicated by the indoor air temperature.
4.7. Estimation of parameters for calculation
of broiler heat production
As mentioned previously, the aim of this work has
been to examine if the heat production of broilers kept
under present production conditions still can be based on
Eqn (3).
On the basis of the measurements of outdoor and
indoor climate using a heat transmission coe$cient of
; (;"0)20 W/m2 3C), determined by heating the room
without broilers with a known heating capacity, the
results were analysed by means of temperature, relative
humidity and carbon dioxide balance equations.
The analyses include the following steps, according to
Pedersen et al. (1998).
(1) Correction factor for sensible heat.
Calculation of the either value for the correction factor
k for the identical assessment of ventilation -ow from
s
temperature balances or from moisture balances.
The philosophy of step (1) is that the two di!erent
calculation methods based on temperature and humidity,
respectively, for calculation of the ventilation #ow for
a given situation, must result in the same "gure for the
#ow, because the calculations are based on identical
material. Furthermore, the sensible heat plus the latent
heat must be equal to the total heat. Therefore, the
common ventilation #ow for the two calculation
methods can be laid down by iteration by changing the
value of k .
s
Because the broiler heat production is negligible dur-
ing the "rst weeks, as compared to the need of supple-
mental heat, the results are dubious for the "rst weeks.
Furthermore, there will be some day-to-day deviations,
for which reason the calculations were carried out for
5 day periods. Table 3 shows that k decreases slightly as
s
the temperature decreases (i.e. at increasing broiler age).
On the basis of 20 (16}35) days, a common value for
k was calculated, as shown in Table 4. On average for all
s
three experiments, the correction factor is 0)83, which
, shows that the sensible heat is 17% lower than that
calculated by Eqns (3) and (7). That deviation is due to
184 S . PE D ER S EN ; M . G A AR D B O TH O M S E N

Table 3
Calculated values of the correction factors for sensible heat ks

House 3 House 4
Broiler age,
day Period (date) Indoor temp., 3C ks Indoor temp., 3C ks

Experiment 1
11}15 11/5}15/5 25)3 0)884 27)0 1)025
16}20 16/5}20/5 23)3 0)845 24)1 0)881
21}25 21/5}25/5 21)5 0)866 22)1 0)838
26}30 26/5}30/5 22)3 0)815 22)7 0)840
31}35 31/5}4/6 22)7 0)901 22)9 0)810
Experiment 2
11}15 24/8}28/8 28)1 1)291 28)3 1)154
16}20 29/8}2/9 25)6 0)783 24)9 0)753
21}25 3/9}7/9 22)9 0)957 23)1 0)927
26}30 8/9}12/9 22)3 0)871 22)8 0)848
31}35 13/9}17/9 22)7 0)813 23)1 0)801
Experiment 3
11}15 1/2}5/2 26)8 0)857 27)5 0)765
16}20 6/2}10/2 23)4 0)897 24)6 0)745
21}25 11/2}15/2 23)1 0)874 22)4 0)768
26}30 16/2}20/2 20)7 0)808 22)1 0)771
31}35 21/2}25/2 21)4 0)752 22)2 0)752

the inaccuracy of Eqns (3) and (7) and to the evaporation
of water from spilt drinking water and from the bedding.
These investigations cannot show to what extent the
deviation is due to the incorrectness of the equations or
to the evaporation of additional water caused by the
housing system, but the error of Eqn (7) at an animal level
is assumed to be small, and so, the deviation is inter-
preted as evaporation of water at a house level.
(2) Carbon dioxide per heat producing unit.
Calculation of the carbon dioxide production for a ven-
tilation -ow in agreement with that determined by the
temperature/relative humidity equations.
On average, the carbon dioxide measurements result in
a carbon dioxide production of 0)182 m3/h per hpu
(Table 4) which is higher than the 0)163 m3/h per hpu
stated by CIGR (1984), and also higher than that stated
by J+rgensen et al. (1996), who found a carbon dioxide
production of 0)171 m3/h per hpu.
(3) ¹he heat production coe.cient.
Calculation of the heat production coe.cient a giving
agreement between the ventilation -ow measured by
the measuring fan and that calculated by the balance
equations for a value for n of 0)75.
The ventilation #ow is measured by measuring fans.
The coe$cient, giving agreement between the calculated
and measured ventilation rates is shown in Table 4. On
average, the value of coe$cient a is 9)84, which is very
close to the value for coe$cient a of 10 in Eqn (3).

Table 4
Values for the correction factor for sensible heat ks, carbon dioxide production and coe7cient for heat production a based on
a common analysis for 16}35 days

Factor Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Experiment 3 Average Conxdence

parameter limits
House 3 House 4 House 3 House 4 House 3 House 4 (95% level)

Correction factor (k ) 0)861 0)836 0)861 0)844 0)819 0)760 0)83 (0)79}0)87)
s
CO production, 0)182 0)179 0)186 0)180 0)182 (0)177}0)187)
2
* *
m3h~1 hpu~1
Coe$cient (a) * * 8)90 9)13 11)11 10)20 9)84 (8)2}11)5)

hpu, heat production unit.

 HE A T AN D M O IS TU RE PR OD U C TI ON OF BR OIL E RS
Fig. 5. Ventilation yow calculation by means of balance equa-
tions (correction factor k "0.861) based on temperature, relative
4
humidity and carbon dioxide, respectively, and measured directly
by measuring fans, for Experiment 2, House 3: , carbon
dioxide; , temperature; , rel. humidity; , measured
An example of the ventilation #ow calculated by tem-
perature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide balances
and by direct measurement for Experiment 2, house 3 is
shown in Fig. 5.
The indoor climate, the use of supplemental heat and
the ventilation #ow are all parts of a dynamic process
in#uenced by the increased weight of the animal and the
diurnal variations in outdoor climate. If the changes in
outdoor climate are slow, then the transmission heat loss
from the building, the moisture balance in the deep litter
and the ventilation #ow will also change slowly, provided
continuous variable control of indoor temperature and
humidity is made. In this experiment, the conditions have
been unstable in periods with too high indoor relative
humidity, where the humidity of the bedding has fun-
ctioned as a bu!er, resulting in a time delay as regards
removal of moisture. This is illustrated in Table 5, which
shows the correlation between the measured (true) venti-
lation #ow and the calculated ventilation #ow based on
temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide bal-
ance equations, respectively. The table shows that the
Table 5
Correlation between measured ventilation 6ow and ventilation 6ow calculated from a temperature, a relative humidity and a carbon
dioxide balance equation, respectively, for a rearing period of 16}35 days, expressed by the coe7cient of determination (R2)
Coezcient of determination, (R2)
Equation Experiment 1
House 3 House 4
Temperature 0)91 0)92
Relative humidity 0)81 0)87
Carbon dioxide 0)73 0)87
185
coe$cient of determination (R2) is above 0)5 in all cases
regarding measured ventilation #ow and calculated ven-
tilation #ow based on temperature and carbon dioxide,
respectively. For the relative humidity, the correlation
coe$cient is above 0)8 in Experiments 1 and 3, but very
low in Experiment 2. The reason for this is assumed to be
the fact that the supplemental heat in Experiment 2 (sum-
mer conditions) is not controlled by the temperature, but
mainly by the relative humidity in a very unstable way.
5. Discussion
The aim of this project has been to show the heat
production of today's broiler lines under conventional
production conditions. The animal performance for each
of the three experiments show reliable production levels.
It can therefore be concluded that the course of produc-
tion has been normal. Also, the technical installations
have functioned well, except for a few cases of malfunc-
tion.
On the basis of the results illustrated in Fig. 4, the
increase of bedding temperature in relation to the age of
chicken is supposed to be related to the decomposition of
the litter and the transmission of heat from the chickens.
Therefore, it is likely that a thin layer of bedding rather
than a thick one will cause a lower temperature in the
animal zone. It is remarkable that the bedding temper-
ature at day 35 is approximately the same as at day 1, in
spite of the fact that the indoor temperature in that
period is lowered from 33 to approx. 223C.
One of the most important questions in advising
broiler farmers on indoor climate is to examine if the
present rules for calculation of the distribution of the
total animal heat on sensible and latent heat correspond
with the present conventional production conditions. It
is, for instance, very important for the last part of the
production period in discussions of how to reduce the
risk of heat stress.
Figure 6 shows the sensible heat production for a 5 day
period in both animal houses for Experiments 1}3 for the
Experiment 2 Experiment 3
House 3 House 4 House 3 House 4
0)61 0)51 0)89 0)86
0)19 0)03 0)93 0)97
0)75 0)57 * *
186 S . PE D ER S EN ; M . G A AR D B O TH O M S E N
Fig. 6. The measured sensible heat per heat producing unit, hpu,
compared to the present norm: , norm; , Experiment 1;
Experiment 2; , Experiment 3; , norm]0)83
broiler ages of 11}35 days. In most of the cases, the
measured sensible heat is less than that obtained when
calculating by conventional rules. Only at relatively high
indoor temperatures at broiler ages of 11}15 days a high-
er sensible heat production than that stated in Fig. 1 was
observed. However, measurements in this area are rela-
tively unreliable, because the additional heat supply is
high compared to the sensible heat production. The
&&norm'' curve for sensible heat in Fig. 6 can more or less
be interpreted as the animal sensible heat, while the
measuring results shown in the "gure show the sensible
heat on a house level. As previously mentioned, the
discrepancy can be eliminated by using a factor k , which
s
in the present experiment is calculated to be 0)83. It is
17% less sensible heat, corresponding to about 25%
higher moisture production at 223C, than prescribed by
the &&norm''. An even greater evaporation of water was
found by Feddes et al. (1984), who reported that for
commercial houses with litter of straw. &The latent heat
arising from the litter was always more than approxim-
ately twice than that produced by the broilers at any
stage in the production cycle'. Also, Reece and Lott
(1982a) report that the latent heat production for broilers
kept on litter in a 6 m2 chamber is higher than the
sensible heat production.
For hens in aviary/perchery systems (SaK llvik & Peder-
sen, 1999), the sensible part of the total heat production is
less than that prescribed by the &norm', due to evapor-
ation from the bedding, etc. For hens in cages without
access to the stored manure, the sensible part of the total
heat production is slightly higher than the &norm'. There-
fore, it is likely that in the future, it will be necessary to
take into account the di!erent housing systems, also for
broilers, when stating the deviation of the heat produc-
tion in latent and sensible heat.
6. Conclusion
On the basis of the measurements, the following con-
clusions can be made.
(1) The CIGR equation for calculation of total broiler
heat production is still a reasonable foundation.
(2) On average for a period of 16}35 days, the correction
factor for transformation of broiler sensible heat pro-
duction from an animal level to a house level in
houses with deep litter was calculated as 0)83. Corre-
spondingly, 17% of the sensible heat is used for evap-
oration of moisture from the bedding.
(3) On average, the carbon dioxide production was cal-
culated to be 182 l/h per heat producing unit.
(4) The consumption of supplemental heat in broiler
houses is strongly dependent on the accepted max-
imum relative humidity.
(5) In the "nal part of the production period, the temper-
ature of the bedding can be up to 133C higher than
the indoor temperature. Thus, the microclimate at
animal level is much warmer than that expressed by
the indoor temperature.
(6) For making consistent calculations of the indoor
climate with respect to the need for supplemental
heat and ventilation #ow in a broiler house, it is
necessary to take the speci"c housing system into
account.
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