Abstract
Access to adequate foraging material can reduce the occurrence of feather pecking and cannibalism in laying hens. Technical devices may help farmers provide enrichment material more effectively. However, research in this field is rare. On a commercial free-range farm with 15,000 laying hens (Lohmann Tradition), an enrichment device was evaluated from the 30th to the 58th week of age (LW). It ran at five time points (TP) in the afternoon and offered five grams of dried maize silage per hen per day. The numbers of hens residing in defined scratching areas (ScA) either beneath the device (ScA 1 and 3) or in a similar area without the device (ScA 2) were determined. Significantly more hens were found in ScA 1 and ScA 3 when the device was running. On average, only 6.96 (±7.00) hens stayed in ScA 2, whereas 31.45 (±5.38) and 33.83 (±6.16) hens stayed in ScA 1 and ScA 3, respectively. The hen numbers for ScA 1 and ScA 3 did not differ significantly, nor did the TPs have an influence on number of hens within ScA 1 and ScA 3. The number of hens beneath the device can serve as a potential indicator of the device’s usage.
Highlights
Feather pecking and cannibalism are still common behavioral problems in laying hen husbandry, and have been observed in all traditional European housing systems [1,2,3,4,5]
The subsequent challenge for farmers is to realize an economical and animal-friendly husbandry to prevent the occurrence of feather pecking and cannibalism in flocks while keeping laying hens with intact beaks
While scratching areas (ScA) 2 revealed no significant difference between DT 1 and DT 2 (t = 1.68; p = 0.55), in ScA 1 and ScA 3, more hens were found for DT 2 compared with DT 1 (ScA 1: t = −9.00; p < 0.001; ScA 3: t = −9.93; p < 0.001) (Figure 2)
Summary
Feather pecking and cannibalism are still common behavioral problems in laying hen husbandry, and have been observed in all traditional European housing systems [1,2,3,4,5] These behavioral disorders can cause an increased feed intake, higher rates of mortality, and lower egg production rates [3,6,7], which implies economic losses for the farmers. Even though negative long-term effects may be reduced for different variations of this procedure (e.g., different methods or bird ages), short-term consequences such as pain, loss of beak sensibility, and altered pecking behavior have been observed [12,13,14,15,16] This practice has already been banned in many European countries (e.g., Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, and Germany) or will be so in the near future (e.g., the Netherlands, the United Kingdom) for animal welfare reasons. The subsequent challenge for farmers is to realize an economical and animal-friendly husbandry to prevent the occurrence of feather pecking and cannibalism in flocks while keeping laying hens with intact beaks
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