Welfare of organic laying hens

Monique Bestman & Jan-Paul Wagenaar

Abstract
Feather pecking in laying hens is one of the main welfare problems in poultry. It is not only seen in conventional systems, but also in systems that are meant to be more welfare-friendly, such as organic.

Feather pecking is an abnormal behaviour, caused by stress or frustration. It is a symptom of reduced welfare in both victim (MacAdie & Keeling, 2000) and actor (El-Lethey et al., 2000).

In order to be able to improve the welfare in organic laying hens, in our first study we measured the degree of feather pecking in 63 flocks on 26 farms and identified the main risk factors (Bestman & Wagenaar, 2003).

In our second study we focused on feather pecking during the rearing period. For that study, 29 flocks of rearing hens were followed from the first week till 30 weeks of age (Bestman & Wagenaar, 2006).

In this abstract the results of both studies will be combined in order to give a complete picture of feather pecking in organic laying hens, the size of the problem and directions for solving the problem.

Our first study (Bestman & Wagenaar, 2003) was done with 63 flocks of adult laying hens on 26 farms. Plumage damage was scored at 50 weeks of age or older. Data about housing and management were collected by asking and measuring. Multiple linear regression was used to establish models for the degree of feather pecking.

Our second study (Bestman & Wagenaar, 2006) was done with 29 flocks of rearing hens on 10 different rearing farms. At the age of 17 weeks they went to 51 laying farms. The plumage was scored at 6 ages between 1 and 30 weeks of age. Again, data about housing and management were collected, both during rearing as well as from the laying farms. T-tests were used to find statistical significant differences between flocks that did and flocks that did not feather peck during rearing.

Moreover, the persistence of feather pecking throughout the first 30 weeks of life was calculated. In our first study some degree of feather pecking was seen in 71% of the organic flocks of adult laying hens. The main risk factor in organic laying hens appeared to be the limited use of the outdoor run. Although all flocks in our study were organic and did have an outdoor run, in 58% of the flocks, less than half of the animals went outside.

With our model we could calculate that if 66% of the hens from a flock used the run, no severe feather pecking was seen anymore. The use of the outdoor run increased with shelter in the run, more cockerels, hens being younger at arrival on the laying farm and the hens being kept in smaller flocks.

In our second study feather pecking was seen in 54% of the flocks of rearing hens. Although all differences found between flocks that did and flocks that did not feather peck, were similar as risk factors mentioned in literature, we found only one of them being statistical significant: high density during the first 4 weeks of life. In 33 out of 41 laying hen flocks (80%) the feather pecking behaviour during lay (scored as yes or no) was the same as during rearing (scored as yes or no).

Limited use of the outdoor run was found to be the main risk factor in adult laying hens. This is also found in another study (Green et al., 2000). One of the explanations may be the rich environment of the outdoor area, compared to the indoor area.

 

Source
Proceedings of the 1st IFOAM International Conference on Animals in Organic Production, August 2006

 

OACC gratefully acknowledges IFOAM for permission to post this abstract.

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Posted October 2007