1. The study investigated the effects of providing sight barriers in breeding pens on pheasant mortality, feather damage and behaviour. 2. Data were collected from 11 conventional pens (control) and 11 pens with additional sight barriers (barrier) over the course of a ten week breeding season. Each pen contained 8 males and 56 females at the beginning of the season. 3. There was a higher rate o...

Feather pecking and cannibalism in farm-kept laying hens are damaging behaviors both in terms of animal welfare and economic loss, and a major challenge in modern poultry farming. Both rearing with a foster hen and genetic selection have been demonstrated to reduce feather pecking in laying hens. We examined the effects of rearing with a foster hen, genetic selection for low mortality from cann...

Severe feather pecking (SFP) is a behavioral disorder, for which there are multifactorial reasons. Various aspects of pullet and laying-hen husbandry—including housing conditions, management, feeding, genetics—must be considered, to prevent negative outcomes, such as severe plumage damage, skin injuries, high mortality rates due SFP. The aim this study was identify management factors in the occ...

introduction the commercial egg industry commonly uses induced molt procedures to rejuvenate flocks for a second or third laying cycle. molting may be induced by feed withdrawal for up to 10 days (7), water withdrawal for 2 days (19), or both, along with a reduction of day length (14). such programs cause concern about animal welfare because it is thought that they may be harmful to hens (28). ...