Poultry Behaviour

Question 1

Chicken domestication driven by…

Answer 1

cockfighting

Question 2

Laying strains selected for… Broiler strains selected for…

Answer 2

Laying = early onset of lay, egg production, egg quality (size, strength), food conversion efficiency

Broiler = food conversion efficiency, rapid growth, whitr:dark meat ratio, meat yield

Question 3

Turkey breeding focused on…

Answer 3

Plumage characteristics (against dark plumage so no melanin from feather follicles), meat production

Question 4

Panoramic, binocular vision of poultry

Answer 4

pano = 300
bino = 26

Question 5

Chickens good at focusing on…

Answer 5

small objects in front of them

Question 6

Colours birds are sensitive to

Answer 6

Blue and red (prefer a green background)

Question 7

What negatively impacts eye development

Answer 7

Dim light and continuous illumination

Question 8

Poultry can not move their ____ only their ____

Answer 8

eyes, head

Question 9

Poultry can hear…

Answer 9

low frequency sounds, as low as 20Hz

Question 10

Some calls of poultry

Answer 10

Warning, contact, mating, threat, submissive, laying

Question 11

Food preferences based on…

Answer 11

visual cues and taste preferences

Question 12

Poultry prefer what taste? Cannot taste what?

Answer 12

Prefer umami/salt
No receptors for sweet/spicy
Avoid bitter

Question 13

Chicken olfaction

Answer 13

Important for finding food
Aversive to carnivore poop, blood from conspecifics
More comfortable in environment that smells like the environment they were in while in the egg

Question 14

Two types of chicken housing, what they are used for

Answer 14

Floor systems: meat-type birds and breeding flocks
Cages: egg-laying hens

Question 15

Cage free birds are…

Answer 15

In aviary, free run or free range

Question 16

Laying hen, meat chicken, broiler breeder housing

Answer 16

Laying hen: cages, 3-10 birds, 300-600cm^2 per bird
Meat chicken sheds: broiler barns, 10,000-70,000 birds
Breeder sheds: broiler breeding barns, thousands on litter or wire, 1:8-15 male:female
Slide 9

Question 17

A few ways we can enrich laying hen cages

Answer 17

Perch, scratchpads, next boxes, dust baths

Question 18

Enrichment needs to be…

Answer 18

1. novel
2. destructible
3. biologically relevant

Question 19

What are aviary systems? The point?

Answer 19

Several horizontal levels, feed trough on floor and perch, nest boxes, nipple drinkers, increases hens per square meter

Make better use of space between floor and ceiling

Question 20

Examples of floor types

Answer 20

Fine hexagonal mesh
Coarse rectangular mesh
Perforated sheet steel

Question 21

Bird flooring preferences mostly have to do with…

Answer 21

Previous experience =, less to do with indication of suffering

Question 22

What is high priority to hens

Answer 22

nest sites

Question 23

Two kinds of abnormal behaviours in poultry

Answer 23

1. Feather pecking: re-directed ground pecking, gentle or severe
2. Injurious pecking: vent pecking or cannibalism (peck at dark follicle where feather used to be)

Question 24

Why is pecking order more apparent in laying hen and breeder systems? How are they established

Answer 24

Social stratification usually is not established until after broiler market age

Established through pecking and threatening

Question 25

Interrelationships in laying hens… How do you know who’s at the bottom

Answer 25

Social rank, aggression, feeding beh, egg production

Bald spot on back of head

Question 26

What are hen subgroups

Answer 26

Form within large groups after hens have been together for months
Restrict themselves to an area

Question 27

Formation of subgroups means…

Answer 27

Birds can recognize their own group members and overlapping of territories

Question 28

Large groups of hens means more…

Answer 28

Mortality, production/beh problems (unstable social group)

Question 29

Hierarchy in mixed sex groups

Answer 29

Males and females have their own pecking order
Cockerels establish it within 6-8 weeks
Pullets establish it within 8-10 weeks

Question 30

Feeding behaviour

Answer 30

Choose to feed close to each other (social attraction)
Show socially facilitated feeding (peck more at feed with company than alone)

Question 31

Hen head movement in housing systems

Answer 31

Maintain heads at regular pattern of spacing, avoid frontal aspect of other birds
Turn in defense to approaching birds

Question 32

Hens can recognize…

Answer 32

Different breeds, but not individuals of a different breed

Question 33

Recognition of individuals

Answer 33

occurs through visual cues of the head, comb is most important

Question 34

What is the third-party effect in poultry

Answer 34

Fewer aggressive acts occur towards subordinates when in the presence of a more dominant flockmate

Question 35

Selection for early onset of egg production in layers has led to…
Selection for rapid growth in broilers has led to…

Answer 35

More aggressive and socially dominant females before maturity

Decrease in active behaviours (foraging, locomotion)

Question 36

Slide 22 pic*

Answer 36

ok

Question 37

Sexual behaviours involve

Answer 37

Postures, vocalizations, noises, spreading of feathers

Question 38

Why are high status females difficult to mate? Solution?

Answer 38

Requires her to take a submissive stance
Separate high-ranking females to mate them (become lower rank in new group)

Question 39

When a mother-offspring bond is formed… Slide 24

Answer 39

Chicks learn to respond to maternal feeding call, distress call, hen’s purring sound

Question 40

When do chicks imprint

Answer 40

Precocial, in the first few days