Feather pecking

Further criteria nest appetite and acceptance, disposition to cannibalism and feather pecking, feather quality, proportion of broody hens, unwanted behaviour in general (nervousness, flying in the hen run)... 

The animals should show normal social behaviour in large groups (no or low levels of feather pecking and cannibalism). 

This cage-adapted material has shortcomings in terms of behaviour in larger flocks. This manifests itself in an excessive tendency for feather pecking and cannibalism, and, independent of flock size, many mislaid eggs. 

Experiments have shown that feather pecking, cannibalism and nesting behaviour can be improved by selection. 

For example, early access to a littered floor instead of the plastic grid typical in conventional aviary systems leads to increased foraging (which was shown to increase the nutritional quality of eggs see Section 8.2), less feather pecking and better tail feather condition during the remainder of the... 

Blokhuis H.J. and Arkes J.G. (1984). Some observations on the development of feather pecking in poultry Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 12, 145-157. 

Green L.E., Lewis K., Kimpton A. and Nicol C.J. (2000). Cross-sectional study of the prevalence of feather pecking in laying hens in alternative systems and its associations with management and disease , Veterinary Record, 147, 233-238. 

Gunnarsson S., Keeling L.J. and Svedberg J. (1999). Effect of rearing factors on the prevalence of floor eggs, cloacal cannibalism and feather pecking in commercial flocks of loose housed laying hens , British Poultry Science, 40, 12-18. 

Huber-Eicher B. and Sebo F. (2001). Reducing feather pecking when raising laying hen chicks in aviary systems , Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 73, 59-68. 

Nicol C.J., Potzsch C., Lewis K. and Green L.E. (2003). Matched concurrent case-control study of risk factors for feather pecking in hens on free-range commercial farms in the UK , British Poultry Science, 44, 515-523. 

Riedstra B. and Groothuis T.G.G. (2004). Prenatal light exposure affects early feather pecking behaviour in the domestic chick , Animal Behaviour, 67, 1037-1042. 

Bestman, M.W.P. and Wagenaar, J.P. 2003. Farm level factors associated with feather pecking... 

Bilcik, B. and Keeling, L.J. 1999. Changes in feather condition in relation to feather pecking... 

Wechsler, B. and Huber-Eicher, B. 1998. The effect of foraging material and perch height on feather pecking and feather damage in laying hens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 58 131-141. 

Su et al. (2005) demonstrated that it is possible to select for, or against, feather-pecking behaviour in chickens. After only one generation, lines were developed with large differences in production and incidence of feather pecking. 

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