The feather condition and behaviour of laying hens in modified cages with elevated (28 cm above floor) and conventional (6 cm above floor) height feed troughs was measured at 32–34 and 56–59 weeks of age. Feather cover was generally better at the younger age than the older, and in cages with the elevated trough as …
To approximate a commercially induced molt, feed was withdrawn (FW) from Hy-Line W-36 hens (65-wk-old) until they lost 35% of their initial body weight. Behaviors of 36 FW hens and 36 control hens were videorecorded on Days 1 to 3, 8 to 10, and 19 to 21 of FW, when FW hens reached 15, 25, …
Feed deprivation has been adopted by the commercial egg industry to induce molt because it is the easiest method to apply and produces the best results. Feed deprivation, however, raises concerns about animal welfare. Birds respond to long-term feed deprivation in three phases. The first phase lasts at most a few days, during which physiological …
The behavioral responses of laying hens to a 4-day fast were investigated. Three hundred and sixty Hyline W77 (W77) and 360 Hyline Brown (Brown) lPweek-old pullets were housed as pairs in cages in separate rooms for each stock. At 63 weeks of age, feed was withdrawn for 96 h from half of the W77 hens. …
Induced molting in egg-laying hens is an important method for maximizing hen egg production and quality as well as hen health in commercial settings; however, there is growing societal concern over its effects on hen well-being. Using individual hens as their own controls, this research examined the behavior of hens subjected to different treatments of …
In the commercial egg industry the management practice of using feed withdrawal to induce a flock to molt has been …
An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of hen BW before molt and the percentage of BW loss during molt on the subsequent performance and profitability of hens during the second cycle of production. Results revealed that profits associated with Light hens (≤1,453g, or 3.2 lb) were from 1.8¢ to 3.8¢/dozen eggs higher than …
Several dietary alternatives to feed withdrawal have been proposed to induce a molt in laying hens. This study compared the behavior of laying hens on an alfalfa crumble diet (ALC) to hens that were either in a conventional layer diet (FF) or hens that had feed withdrawn (FW) during a 9-d trial. Each treatment consisted …
Two commercial strains, Hy-Line W-36 and DeKalb XL, were moved to a laying house at 18 wk of age. They were housed 6 hens/layer cage at 2 densities (361 and 482 cm2/bird) with 2 replications each per strain/density combination. The high-density treatment contained 24 hens/replication and the low-density treatment contained 18 hens/replication for a total …
The early rearing environment plays an important role in the development of many behaviour patterns and it has been shown …
1. In order to investigate the effect of perch width on perching behaviour of laying hens, two experiments in which …
This paper describes how birds move between horizontal perches at different heights with different angles separating them, using the time …
For night-time roosting domestic fowl show a strong priority for high perches. Following the anti-predator hypothesis the height of a resting site should however be more important for the fowl than roosting on a perch. Here we tested whether laying hens prefer high resting areas without perches compared to low resting areas with perches. In …
1. The EU laying hen directive, which bans standard battery cages from 2012, has implications for animal welfare, particularly since housing laying hens in extensive systems, while increasing natural behaviour and improving bone strength, is associated with a greater level of bone fractures, predominantly of the keel bone, compared to birds housed in cages. 2. …
Free-living hens roost on branches in trees at night, and laying hens in aviary systems or cages provided with perches also make extensive use of these for night-time roosting. It is therefore suggested that roosting on perches is important to the hens and that domestic hens should be provided with perches in order to promote …
Behaviour problems, such as feather pecking and cannibalism, in loose housing systems for laying hens may originate from the rearing period. Early access to perches facilitates the use of three dimensional space and therefore allows escape from threatening pen mates. In this experiment, we studied individual differences in start of perching behaviour and if environmental …
Four groups of 15 – 19 adult ISA Brown hens were studied in pens to assess the relationship between social status and use of perches and nestboxes. This was to test the hypothesis that subordinate hens use these resources more by day, for avoiding dominants, but that dominants use perches more at night, for roosting. …
The spatial distribution and behaviour of perchery housed laying hens were compared at a constant stocking density (18.5 birds/m²) in eight pens with colonies of five diferent sizes (323 birds (N = 1), 374 birds (N = 2), 431 birds (N = 2), 572 birds (N = 1) and 912 birds (N = 2)). The …