I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle suitable for picking up fowl from the ground, in particular a vehicle suitable for picking up chickens or similar animals.
II. Related Art and Other Considerations
It is well known that most fowl bred for slaughter is currently reared in large sheds or the like. Inside the sheds thousands of birds are reared using very advanced rearing techniques. Intensive rearing methods of this type result in a notable economy of scale for the breeders, in turn resulting in economic advantages for the consumers who purchase cuts of meat obtained from animals reared using these techniques. Moreover, this type of intensive rearing results in a substantial uniformity of the animals reared. After a certain predefined period of time, the reared birds reach the correct weight and are ready for slaughter.
At the end of the rearing period, the live animals must be removed, without causing them injury, from the shed where they have been reared and taken away for the following processing operations, typically taken to the slaughterhouse.
It may also happen that the fowl must be removed from one shed and taken to another shed. This situation arises, for example, when it is required to remove chicks in order to transport them to another location where rearing thereof will be continued.
It is therefore necessary to remove all the animals from the rearing shed in a relatively small amount of time. The removed animals are typically introduced into cages. However, the removed animals may also not be introduced into cages, but taken to another rearing shed or unloaded into a different type of container or onto a conveyor belt.
Once they have been closed inside cages, the animals may be easily transported by means of a lorry or other suitable transportation means. The problem consists, as mentioned above, in the fact that several thousands of birds, for example thousands of chickens, are reared inside the shed and must be removed without causing them injury.
In some countries, in particular in those where the cost of labour is relatively low, the operations of picking up the fowl and if necessary caging them may also be performed manually. This is difficult, time-consuming and often results in injury to the animals. However, in most cases, the picking up (and caging) operations are performed using special machines, commonly called “fowl-loading machines”. In the specific case where the fowl are chickens, they are called “chicken-loading machines”.
An apparatus for picking up and introducing fowl in general into coops and the like is known, for example, from the Italian patent IT1303293 in the name of Ciemme di Calabria f.IIi S.n.c. The known apparatus is very efficient and allows the loading of a very large number of animals per unit of time.
However, in certain working conditions, it is not entirely practical. In particular, the use of such a known apparatus is awkward in rearing sheds which are relatively small and/or which have support pillars arranged close together and/or with small-size entrance doors. Another situation where it is not easy to use the above-mentioned known apparatus is that of multistorey sheds. In fact, in order to work on the higher levels, it is necessary to use light apparatus which have a small height and overall dimensions.
The patent EP0713642 discloses a plant for loading poultry inside containers. In this patent a separate capturing vehicle able to move independently of the plant, for capturing and transporting live poultry into the receiving position is also described. The capturing vehicle according to EP0713642 comprises a tractor and two conveyor units along the sides of the tractor. Each conveyor unit comprises an inclined conveyor and an accumulation conveyor.
The present inventors have considered the problem of providing a chicken-loading vehicle or, more generally, fowl-loading vehicle, which is able to operate in small-size environments and which has a high chicken loading capacity.