This invention is a system and involved components for staging a series of multi-compartmented, multi-tier chicken cages and loading them in a chicken house for with a chickens loader that receives chickens urged by a revolving gathering head onto a first longitudinal conveyor belt sloped upwardly to a second longitudinal conveyor belt assembly the distal end of which is vertically and horizontally positional form pivot positions at the proximal end thereof. A third conveyor system is longitudinally aligned and slideably mounted on the second conveyor assembly for extension and retraction. The belts of the three belt conveyors are operated to increase the speed of the chickens on the belts to a terminal speed in the range of from about 500 to about 1400 feet per minute, for discharge of the chickens into a facing open compartment of the chicken cage at that terminal speed. Cages are presented for this high speed loading on a platform having a front end and a longitudinal centerline, such that the cage doors face in a selected direction towards or away from said centerline when an empty cage is on a rear portion of the platform on one side of said centerline, face the front end of the platform transversely to the centerline at a front portion of the platform for loading with poultry, and face in the same selected direction towards or away from the centerline at a rear portion of the platform on a side of the centerline opposite from said one side for removal of a loaded cage from said platform.

A method for transporting poultry in a coop trailer that includes a trailer section which can carry a number of tiers of poultry cages on its bed and has a vertically oriented tarpaulin system mounted thereon. The tarpaulin system includes tarpaulins which are suspended from a cable that extends between the front and rear ends of the trailer section. The tarpaulins can rapidly and easily be drawn back and forth along the sides of the trailer section to cover and uncover the cages. When the tarpaulins are fully extended along the sides of the trailer section, the tarpaulins effectively aid in preventing the birds from being buffeted about by excessive wind as the coop trailer travels along the roads. The tarpaulins also aid in maintaining a more constant temperature within the trailer section. The tarpaulins can be quickly and easily withdrawn and rotated to lay adjacent one of the front and rear ends of the trailer section and can be secured in that position so as to allow for the loading or removal of the cages from the trailer section.