The Stress of Not Being Able to Perform Dustbathing in Laying Hens
Vestergaard, K. S., E. Skadhauge and L. G. Lawson. The stress of not being able to perform dustbathing in laying hens. Physiol Behav 62(2) 413-419, 1997.–The stress of not being able to perform dustbathing was studied in small groups of laying hens. The birds were reared and kept for 2.5 years in cages with either […]
Determination of corticosterone concentrations in egg albumen: A non-invasive indicator of stress in laying hens
Measurement of plasma corticosterone is difficult because the handling associated with blood sampling from birds is stressful. The use of non-invasive means of measuring stress could help to alleviate this problem. It was considered that the accumulation of plasma corticosterone into the egg albumen could provide a non-invasive indicator of stress in laying hens. The […]
Time course of changes in egg-shell quality, faecal corticosteroids and behaviour as welfare measures in laying hens
The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which three non-invasive measures of welfare in laying hens (egg-shell quality, corticosteroid levels as measured from the birds’ faeces and behavioural preferences) were correlated over a period of five days in two groups of birds. One group had access to an enriched test area […]
Effects of Lighting on the Welfare of Domestic Poultry: A Review
Four aspects of lighting which may influence the behaviour and physiology of housed poultry are light intensity, photoperiod, light source and wavelength. These factors are frequently manipulated in an attempt to improve productivity and to facilitate management practices. This review examines the effects of such manipulation upon the welfare of the birds. The majority of […]
The ability of laying hens to negotiate perches of different materials with clean or dirty surfaces
Increasingly, perches for laying hens are being made from metals and plastics. There is nothing in the literature regarding how easily birds jump between perches of different materials, or how their ability to do so changes with faecal contamination of the perches. Forty-four medium hybrid brown hens negotiated perches of wood (5 cm × 5 […]
Dichotomy in Choice of Nest Characteristics by Caged Laying Hens
Soiling of nests in modified cages for laying hens might be reduced by using a wire mesh floor for the nest. However, use of such a material might be contrary to the preferences of the hens and compromise their welfare. Twenty-four laying hens were housed singly in modified cages which incorporated two nests. One nest […]
A Comparison of Two Methods for Assessing Critical Flicker Fusion Frequency in Hens
This paper compared two general methods for assessing critical fusion frequency in hens (gallus gallus domesticus). The first method was a conditional discrimination procedure with the stimuli presented successively. The second was a two-alternative forced-choice procedure with the stimuli presented simultaneously. It was found that both methods of stimulus presentation gave comparable results suggesting that […]