10. Poultry Behaviour

Question 1

Where are chickens mainly derived from? What was domestication potentially driven by?

Answer 1

Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus gallus) and domesticated over 8000 years ago in South-East Asia
- Domestication was potentially driven by the popularity of cockfighting

Question 2

What two types of chickens are modern breeds mainly derived from?

Answer 2

Asiatic and Mediterranean
- Hybridized in the 20th century for commercial use to create egg laying (laying hens) and meat (broiler) strains

Question 3

Turkey origins
- native to:
- domesticated:

Answer 3

• Native to the Americas
• Domesticated ~2000 yrs ago in Mexico, then to Spain and the rest of Europe, then back to North America by European settlers

Question 4

What is breeding of turkeys focused on?

Answer 4

Breeding focused on plumage characteristics, then meat production (similar to broilers)
- selection against dark plumage to remove the melanin from feather follicles (improved appearance of carcass)

Question 5

Chicken vision

Answer 5

1. Relatively large eyes with a ‘third eyelid’ that are fixed within bony sockets
   - 300 panoramic vision
   - 26 binocular vision
   - increased sensitivity to blue and red
2. Chickens are very good at focusing on small objects directly in front of them
   - will peck at small (0.3cm) round objects
3. Eye development can be negatively impacted by dim light and continuous illumination

Question 6

Panoramic and binocular vision of chickens

Answer 6

Panoramic: 300
Binocular 26

Question 7

Chicken hearing

Answer 7

Hearing is an acute sense
- adept at detecting low frequency sounds (as low as 20 Hz)

Question 8

How are communication signals provided by chickens?

Answer 8

Communication signals provided via postures, displays and vocalizations
- threat and submission

Question 9

What are the 10 types of calls that chickens can make?

Answer 9

1. Warning/predator alarm calls
2. Contact calls
3. Mating calls
4. Threat calls
5. Territorial calls
6. Submissive calls
7. Distress, alarm or fear calls
8. Laying and nesting calls
9. Contentment calls
10. Food calls

Question 10

What are food preferences of chickens based on?

Answer 10

Food preference based on visual cues and taste preferences
- potential preference for umami/salt
- no receptors for sweet/spicy
- aversion to bitter

Can detect a variety of odours which is important for finding food

Question 11

What is the primary type of commercial housing used worldwide for mature egg-laying hens?

Answer 11

Cages

Question 12

What is the primary type of commercial housing used worldwide for meat-type birds (broilers, turkeys and ducks) and breeding flocks?

Answer 12

Floor systems (free-run)

Question 13

Cages (laying/enriched cages)

Answer 13

Kept in groups of 3-10 birds at 300-600cm^2 per bird

Question 14

Meat chicken sheds (broiler barns)

Answer 14

Hold 10,000 to 70,000 birds on litter at 30-50kg live weight per m^2

Question 15

Breeder sheds (broiler breeder barns)

Answer 15

• Several thousand birds housed on litter or wire
• male to female ration is about 1 to 8-15, with 0.2 to 0.3 m^2 per bird

Question 16

What do enriched cages allow for?

Answer 16

Allows a wider variety of behavioural characteristics than the conventional battery cage (eg. perch, scratchpads, nest box, and dust bath)
- Changing codes of practice in Canada no longer allow the use of battery cages for laying hens

Question 17

In aviary systems, what is the idea to make better use of the space?

Answer 17

Idea is to make better use of the space between floor and ceiling in the poultry house
- Several horizontal levels
- Increases the number of hens per square meter of floor area
- One feed trough along the floor and one on the perches
- Nest box
- Nipple drinkers

Question 18

What are 3 examples of previous floor experiences that affect bird floor choice?

Answer 18

1. Fine hexagonal mesh
2. Coarse rectangular mesh
3. Perforated sheet steel

Question 19

How does previous experience influence what environment a hen will choose (if given the choice)?

Answer 19

Hens used to living outside in a garden will choose an outside run, given the choice; will choose a cage if used to living in cages…later will choose a run
- More to do with previous experience than it is indicative of suffering in a cage enviro
- Hens will work to gain access to nest sites (inelastic demand)

Question 20

2 examples of abnormal behaviour

Answer 20

1. Feather pecking
   - Form of re-directed ground pecking
   - Experience early in life with ground pecking may influence pecking behaviour later in life
   - Can be gentle or severe
2. Injurious pecking
   - Vent pecking or cannibalism

Question 21

What does social organization depend on?

Answer 21

The housing system
- Pecking orders tend to emerge in laying and breeder systems
- Cages have a definite hierarchy established by pecking and threatening when hens are placed in the cage
- Laying hens have complex interrelationships involving social rank, aggression, feeding behaviour, and egg production
- Not usually seen in broilers because social stratification usually is not established until aftermarket age

Question 22

How can aggressive pecking be differentiated from feather pecking?

Answer 22

• Aggressive pecking occurs near the head/comb
• Subordinate bird develops a bald patch by the comb

Question 23

Formation of Sub-groups

Answer 23

Sub-groups form within large groups
- After hens have been together for some months
- Sub-groups can become restricted to an area; hens tend to live in “neighbourhoods” where they are well acquainted