Abstract

Previous work has shown that the tendency to feather peck in domestic fowl is influenced by experiences early in life; it was hypothesised that broody hens prevent development of feather pecking and cannibalism in their chicks by increasing their ground pecking activity and by motivating them to earlier perch use. Twelve groups of 10 layer hen chicks (Lohmann Tradition) were reared in pens (2.55 m(2)) with perches at heights of 20 and 40 cm; six groups were reared with broody hens and six with heating lamps. The hens and the heating lamps were removed when the chicks were 5 weeks old. A 13-day long stress period (i.e. increased light intensity, short-term feed deprivation) was introduced when the chickens were 25 weeks old, after which the experiment was terminated. The number of ground pecks performed during 2 min was recorded for all individuals, when they were 1, 8, and 20 weeks old. The position of each chick (floor, low perch, or high perch) was recorded using scan sampling 12 times a day on days 5-40. Feather pecking was recorded continuously for 30 min in each group when the chicks were 5, 10, 13, 17, 20, 24, and 27 weeks old. Data were analysed using repeated measures ANOVA. The brooded chicks ground pecked four times more in weeks 1 and 8 than the non-brooded chicks, whereas the amount was similar in week 20. The brooded chicks were on average 9.8 (+/- 0.6) days old when first observed on the low perch during day time and the non-brooded were 13.5 (+/- 0.8) days old. No difference was found between the two treatments in onset of night perching (low perch: brooded 19.2 (+/- 1.6) and non-brooded 22.5 (+/- 1.9) days old). Severe feather pecking was almost non-existent in both treatments throughout the experiment, although a rise in frequency was found in the non-brooded pens in weeks 20 and 24. Mortality due to feather pecking and cannibalism was found to be significantly higher for the non-brooded chickens. In conclusion, the provision of broody hens resulted in chickens having a higher ground pecking activity, an earlier day-use of perches, and a lower mortality. Because severe feather pecking only developed to a minor non-significant extent in the non-brooded chickens, no conclusion could be made on the effect of broody hens on chickens' feather pecking activity. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Keywords

broody hens; cannibalism; chickens; feather pecking; ground pecking; perching

Published in

Applied Animal Behaviour Science
2007, Volume: 106, number: 1-3, pages: 39-51
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Wichman, Anette

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Veterinary Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2006.07.012

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/10846