Käfigsysteme für Legehennen: Typen, technische Daten und Preisklassen

“Layer cage” is not one product. It covers at least three structurally different formats, and each one carries a different price basis, footprint, and labor requirement. Below, published dimensions are separated from category-average figures.

What “Layer Cage” Actually Covers

Three formats get sold under this label, and mixing them up is where most quote requests go sideways.
H-type automatic battery cage — a stacked, multi-tier system with mechanized feeding, drinking, egg collection, manure removal, and climate control built in. This is the format most commercial operations scaling past a few thousand birds end up specifying, because labor cost per bird drops sharply once collection and manure handling stop requiring hands.
Type A cage — a lower-automation battery frame, typically manual or semi-manual in feeding and collection. It costs less to buy but more to staff, and it’s the format smaller or budget-constrained operations tend to start with before retrofitting to H-type later.
Enriched (welfare) cage equipment — built to meet welfare-standard requirements common in EU and export-oriented markets. It sits in a different regulatory conversation than the two formats above, and buyers targeting welfare-certified export channels should treat it as its own sizing exercise rather than a variant of the H-type.
A fourth term shows up in the same search results and causes real confusion: the layer brooder cage, used for raising chicks before they reach laying age, not for housing hens in production. If your search intent is chick-rearing rather than egg production, that’s a separate equipment category with its own spec sheet — not covered further here.

Layer Cage Formats at a Glance

H-Type Automatic Layer Battery Cage: Full Dimensional Specifications
This is the format with published parameters, so it’s the one you can plan a house around without waiting on a custom drawing.

One figure this table doesn’t answer, because it isn’t itemized on the current spec sheet: birds per tier or per cage. That number varies with cage width configuration and isn’t standardized the way the frame dimensions are, so treat it as a required question for your supplier conversation rather than something you can back into from the table above.

The taller end of that height range — the 4+4 tier build at up to 6,580 mm total structure height — needs a house with real roof clearance to work. A converted barn or a house built for a 3-tier layout won’t take a 4+4 retrofit without structural changes, which is worth confirming before you spec automation level rather than after.

Where Type A Still Makes Sense

Type A trades automation for lower upfront cost. Feeding and collection stay manual or semi-manual, which raises the labor line on your operating budget in exchange for a lower equipment line. Operations that plan to phase into automation — start with Type A, retrofit to H-type once volume justifies the labor savings — use this as a deliberate staging strategy rather than a permanent choice. If that’s your plan, confirm retrofit compatibility with your supplier before the first purchase; not every Type A frame accepts an H-type conversion later.

How to Estimate Floor Area Before You Request a Quote

1. Confirm target flock size at peak production, not starting flock size — cage systems are sized for the number you’ll actually be running at full capacity.
2. Pick a tier configuration against your house’s roof clearance. A 3-tier system needs roughly 2.33–2.86 m of clearance at the low end of the published range; a 4+4 tier build needs up to 6.58 m structural height and 7.11 m roof height. If you’re retrofitting an existing structure, this step usually decides the configuration before automation level does.
3. Rough out footprint using the published spacing: 1,200 mm column spacing and 1,570 mm trough spacing per row, plus a 2,055 mm service aisle for every aisle you plan to run equipment through.
4. Match automation level to your labor budget, not the other way around — a fully automated system only pays back its higher per-bird cost if the labor it displaces was going to be a real line item.
5. Request exact bird-per-tier capacity from the supplier directly. This is the one number the published spec sheet doesn’t carry, and it’s the number your final floor-area math actually depends on.

What Layer Cage Systems Cost

Mugong pricing is project-specific and quote-based. The figures below are published market-reference ranges — useful for self-qualifying a budget, not a fixed price from any one supplier.

Two numbers get conflated constantly in supplier conversations, and it’s worth separating them explicitly: the per-bird equipment figure above covers cage hardware alone. Once housing, ventilation, and site preparation enter the picture, the relevant number is a per-project installed cost, and it moves independently of the per-bird equipment range — a project with an existing usable structure and one built from bare ground can land at very different totals even with identical cage equipment.

Häufig gestellte Fragen

 What’s the difference between an H-type and a Type A layer cage?

H-type systems automate feeding, drinking, egg collection, manure removal, and climate control. Type A cages are manual to semi-manual, which lowers equipment cost but raises the labor requirement per bird.

 How many birds fit in an H-type cage system?

It depends on tier configuration (3 through 4+4 tier) and cage width, and exact bird-per-tier capacity isn’t itemized in the published spec sheet. Confirm this figure directly with your supplier before finalizing floor-area planning.

 Is the $15–25 per bird figure the full project cost?

No. That range covers equipment only. Housing, ventilation, and site preparation are priced separately and move independently of the per-bird equipment figure.

Do enriched cage systems cost more than H-type battery cages?

Detailed pricing for enriched/welfare cage equipment isn’t published in the current catalog. Given the added compliance requirements against enriched-cage welfare standards, budget for a dedicated quote rather than assuming parity with standard H-type pricing.

Can I start with Type A and retrofit to H-type later?

Some operations do exactly this to phase capital spend, but not every Type A frame accepts an H-type conversion. Confirm retrofit compatibility with your supplier at the time of the original purchase, not after.