The effect of hard pecking enrichment during rear on feather cover, feather pecking behaviour and beak length in beak-trimmed and intact-beak laying hen pullets.

Baker, Paula E; Nicol, Christine J; Weeks, Claire A

Abstract

Injurious Pecking, commonly controlled by beak trimming (BT) is a widespread issue in laying hens associated with thwarted foraging. This controlled study compared the effect in intact and beak-trimmed pullets of providing pecking pans to 8 treatment flocks from 6 w of age. Flocks (mean size 6,843) comprised 8 British Blacktail, 6 Lohmann Brown and 2 Bovans Brown. All young birds (6-7w) pecked more frequently at the pecking pans (mean 40.4) than older pullets (mean 26.0, 23.3 pecks/bird/minute at 11-12w and 14-15w respectively) (p

Citation

Baker, P. E., Nicol, C. J., & Weeks, C. A. (2022). The effect of hard pecking enrichment during rear on feather cover, feather pecking behaviour and beak length in beak-trimmed and intact-beak laying hen pullets. Animals,

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 23, 2022
• Publication Date: Mar 8, 2022
• Deposit Date: Mar 8, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 10, 2022
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Public URL: https://rvc-repository.worktribe.com/output/1557045