Dustbathing and pecking behaviour in chicks from a high and a low feather pecking line of laying hens

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Feather pecking is an abnormal behaviour that often leads to extensive damage to the plumage of laying hens. Recent experimental studies have indicated that feather pecking may be interpreted as ‘misdirected’ ground pecks and/or ‘misdirected’ pecks associated with dustbathing. These two hypotheses were tested by comparing pecking and dustbathing preferences of chicks from a high feather pecking line (HFP line) with those of chicks from a low feather pecking line (LFP line) after they had been given early experience of feathers. By doing so we hoped to find associations between ground pecking, dustbathing and feather pecking that might indicate causal factors for feather pecking. Pairs of naive chicks of both lines were ‘trained’ to peck, scratch and dustbathe on a skin of feathers and subsequently tested during four consecutive choice tests in which a skin of feathers and sand were presented simultaneously. As hypothesised, chicks of the HFP line pecked and dustbathed significantly less on sand than did those of the LFP line and, furthermore, chicks of the HFP line pecked significantly more at the feathers of their cagemate. The chicks of the HFP line, therefore, were more attracted to feathers, and we suggest that early pecking and dustbathing at feathers resulted in a more stable association with feathers in the HFP line. Over the consecutive choice tests it generally became increasingly difficult to release dustbathing in both lines. The results, therefore, indicate that the experience of sand in feather trained chicks leads to deficiencies in the perceptual mechanism that identifies dust for dustbathing.