Choice between artificial turf and wire floor as nest sites in individually caged laying hens

Abstract

Young individually caged hens, which had previously experienced only wire floors but had not yet produced their first egg, laid over 80% of their eggs on artificial turf when given a choice between it and wire mesh. There was little evidence that artificial turf was preferentially used for any behaviour other than egg laying. Hens which had already laid for about 10 weeks on a wire floor showed strong individual preferences for laying in a particular part of the cage. These hens in general neither switched to artificial turf when it was placed on the less preferred side of the cage, nor avoided it when it was placed on the preferred side. It was concluded that these more experienced hens were strongly conservative in preferring to lay in a particular location but were generally indifferent to whether they laid on wire or on artificial turf. If artificial turf is to be widely used as a lining in nest sites then the properties which could make it a more attractive laying substrate deserve investigation.