Animal behaviour and welfare: Cattle Part 5

CATTLE BEHAVIOUR BASICS: PART 5

Baulking: Milking: Cow hates: Social dominance: Training heifers: Milking plant faults: Cattle welfare problems

By Dr Clive Dalton

Baulking
This is a major problem in handling cattle in yards, when they stop or baulk and it breaks the flow, wastes time and the stock usually have to be pushed or goaded to proceed. The ideal is when stock just flow along races and don't need to be pushed.

The other dangerous area is when dairy cows leave the paddock through a gate to enter the race to walk to the farm dairy for milking. If not controlled by the stockperson, damage to hips and ribs can occur by the gate posts and cows can go down and be trampled on by others in the rush.

Which of these cows will be first out of the gate, and which will be last?
This is where their social order comes into effect.

Injuries also happen during transport when cattle are moving off trucks through narrow doorways. They need to be given plenty of time so they don't get stuck in the doorway or bruise their hips on exit.

The main causes are:

• Seeing disturbance ahead.
• Noise ahead e.g. from shouting or banging gates or crushes.
• Dead ends that block their view.
• People standing in front of their point of balance.
• Flapping clothes or sacking.
• Cattle in adjacent pens moving against their flow.
• Smells e.g. blood on floor after dehorning.
• Unfamiliar yards.
• Shadows, open doors, drains or what appear to them to be black holes.
• Bright sunlight especially reflecting off windows.

Baulking can be prevented by:

• Understanding and exploiting their point of balance.
• Making sure stock can see through the head bail to what looks like freedom.
• Handling stock in smaller pens.
• Having a good footing for them.
• Having solid boarding along sides of races.
• Having a good clear entrances to yards so stock don't approach dark holes.
• Avoiding dead ends and sharp corners. Provide a nice gradual curved flow.
• Use rubber to quieten the banging from gates and headbails.
• Teach handlers to keep the noise down and tie up and quieten all barking dogs.

The "Point of Balance"

• This is an imaginary spot just behind the shoulder.
• When you move in front of it, the animal moves back.
• When you move behind it, the animal goes forward.
• There is another point in the middle of the head.
• When you move to the left of it the animal moves to the right, and vice versa
  

Milking

• This is where knowledge of animal behaviour pays enormous dividends.
• The goal is always - Fast and Efficient milking.
• Milking needs to be fast to empty the udder quickly while the oxytocin stimulus is still effective (it lasts 5-7 minutes).
• Milk letdown is caused by oxytocin and the cow has to be trained by conditioned reflex to have a letdown to suit the milking routine.
• Milking needs to be efficient to completely evacuate the udder, and encourage more alveoli (milk cell) activity, and reduce possible infection (mastitis) from milk left in the udder.
• Milking must be a “pleasant and positive” experience for the cow, and this has to be provided by the milker who "likes cows". It's as simple as that!
• Research has shown how the "attitude" of the humans to the cows and milking has very measurable benefits from extra milk in the vat. The challenge is to teach the right "attitude" to the humans!
• It's always been well accepted that women are better milkers than men and there's plenty of evidence to show that as good staff move - herd production also changed. Good people got high production from their cows wherever they went.
• Cows must not get a negative experience in the milking parlour so use some other yard or a time other than milking to do anything that will distress them.
• Design of milking parlour is vital for good milking performance as it inevitably affects both the cows and the staff.
• Fit buzzers or bells to backing gates so cows become conditioned to the signal and move before the gate moves. This saves injuries to legs and reduces stress.
  

What milking cows hate

• Be anthropomorphic and think about this list from the cow’s point of view.
• Poor races that injure their feet.

• Poor entrances to paddocks and the farm dairy that bang their hips and ribs.
• To be touched without warning.
• To be hit by sticks, especially as they are going into the bail.
• Badly adjusted milking machines that hurt teats.

• Cups falling off all the time and having to be put on again.
• Sore teats- where the pain is made worse by milking.
• Dark holes that appear to be full of predators.
• Unfamiliar and sudden noises.
• People shouting at them in loud, high-pitched voices that echo under the large roof of big rotaries.
• Strangers in the milking bail – especially those who might be there to inflict some pain.
• Stray electric shocks.
• Poorly trained staff who hate cows. The cows soon find this out.
• Monday mornings or mornings after favourite teams lose. Staff are not in good moods.
• Tired exhausted staff, who have had little time off and who come to hate cows.
• Staff arguing or fighting during milking. Domestics! Two staff versus one.
• Staff coming off dope or alcoholic hangovers.
• No warning when things happen to them – sudden frights.
• Volume washing with cold water on their teats.
• Having cups put on roughly, and removing them roughly before the vacuum is completely broken.

The proper way to put cups on - with great empathy for the cow

• Backing gates that hit you in the hocks.
• Electric backing gates with hot electric chains hanging down.
• Being in a large herd and losing your mates.

How do you make sure you always eat with a friend or cow of lower social order?

• Very hot conditions with no shade available in paddock or yard. Cows love a sprinkler on hot days to cool off after their walk to be milked.
  

• No water trough at the dairy to have a drink after a long walk to the dairy for milking.
• Flies - especially those that bite.
• Slipping over on hard too-smooth concrete.
• Banging heads or backs against badly designed pipe work.

Modern milking plants are good but you still find minor design
faults from the cow's point of view.

• Deep mud.
• Eye contact by humans.
• Small children in the dairy.
• Dogs in the dairy.

Dairy farmer's dog used to keep cows moving instead of backing gate.
Not a good idea but cheap to run!

What makes happy milkers?

• Confidence with cows.
• Equipment that does not keep breaking down.
  
• Plenty of time off!
• Nice quiet cows that don't kick. The cows know they are liked by the milker.
• Cows with well-shaped udders and teats to make milking easy.
• Cows that don't dung in the dairy (more than 2 dungs/HB row indicates problems).
• Good drenching facilities so cows don't fight the operator.
• The pit or rotary platform at a good height to avoid backache.
• Non-slip floors for both humans and cows - especially on steps.
• No piping to knock head or arms.
• Well-aligned clusters so cows milk out correctly.
• A kick rail behind cows for human safety.
• Minimal noise from machinery.
• System that allows cows to be milked in as short a time as possible.
• A "thank you" from the boss now and again.
• Good wages and conditions - often the conditions come first.
  

Signs of contented cows

Cows keen to get to shed . Is this race wide enough for the herd size?
It's marginal.

• They are keen to come in to be milked.
  
• They stand quietly looking straight ahead .
• Eyes bright and looking slightly down.
• Chewing their cud.
• Lying down with legs tucked under.
• Breathing steadily through their nose.
• Not concerned about the world around them.
  

Social dominance in the milking herd

Why are the same cows always at the back of the herd?
There are plenty of reasons and are worth finding out.

• Old research showed that cows could recognise about 100 other cows in the herd, and sort out a social order among them.
• A happy and hence productive cow knows her place and generally keeps to it. There are big benefits of doing this.
• What happens in grazing groups of 250 or 500 cows or more? ; we don't know! This needs to be studied with some urgency as herd sizes build.
• When grazing, cows should be able to find enough personal space for comfort. But when you see large mobs grazing with great competition for feed, you must wonder about cow welfare.
• When leaving the paddock, low-rank cows wait till higher-rank ones have walked past them.
• Dominant cows can stop low-rank cows drinking as they stand and idle near the trough. So heifers may not get drink till night, which has serious effects on production.
• Cows must have access to adequate water troughs with enough room around them and high enough pressure to keep them full all the time, otherwise low-rank cows won't drink.
  
• Putting a trough in the fence line to share between paddocks and save cost is not effective as it can cut drinking access in large groups.
• Social order is important when the whole herd is walking home for milking. There's no problem with them going back to the paddock after milking as they go back in small groups.
• As herds get larger, walking distances get longer. Some do up to 2.5km in one trip.
• You find some dominant cows at the front, many dominant cows in the middle acting as the driving force, and low ranking (especially heifers) and sick cows are at the rear.
• So the cows at the rear get the pressure from the person, pushed by the bike, and bitten by the dog, and they are the animals who can least afford this distress.
• Contented cows walk with head down, and stressed cows walk with head up and cannot see where they are stepping. They get sore feet and lameness is a major cost of $365/cow/year in lost production and vet charges.
  

Training heifers for milking

• The first milkings can be very stressful for heifers if they have not been trained.
  
• The term "breaking in" is regularly used and for many heifers - that's exactly what it is. It should be "training" and not breaking in!
• Good training really starts during calf rearing so that they are used to close contact with humans when it comes to time for them to enter the herd.
• Then a few weeks before calving, if reared away from home (the usual system), the heifers come back and join the herd. Here they sort out their social order and it can be quite stressful, especially if there are some very dominant old cows in the herd.
• It's good practice to do the following:
• First put them through the yards and the milking parlour with all gates open.
• Repeat the exercise and then hold them in the yard.
• Repeat this and hold them in the bail of the herringbone or put them on the rotary with it stopped.
• Next time switch on the machine and play music to accustom them to usual sounds.
• Walk around behind them, touch them and massage their teats and udders.
• Have more than one person in the parlour, moving around and talking.

To ensure success at heifer's first milking:

• Make sure the cups don't suck air and squeak.
• Don't let the cups fall off among her feet.
• Keep her head up.
• Make sure she cannot turn round in the bail or jump out.
• Avoid over-milking. In fact it's probably better to under-milk her.
• Keep your cool.
• Rub her tail head and talk to her (low tones) when cups are on. Massage her udder and talk to her in low voice tones.
• Don't let her get sore teats.

In practice some farmers avoid all this saying they haven't got time. So they resort to some very inhumane practices like squeezing the heifer between two older cows and slap the cups on and even apply some violence if she plays up. If you need to resort to physical violence and lose your cool, blame your management and not the heifer.


Milking plant faults that affect behaviour

A critical area - the entrance from yard on to rotary platform

There are many basic faults in farm dairies that cause cow behaviour problems. even in expensive new installations. Some examples are:

• Poor concrete work that is too smooth - so cows slip over.
• Concrete that is too rough and wears feet.
• Poor concrete reinforcing allowing stray voltage in the parlour.
• Holding yards that are too small so cows are too tight.
• Poor cow flow so backing gates are made bigger and better - and electrified!
• Poor lighting in the parlour so cows are reluctant to go in.
• Pipework that jams the head of the first cow in the herringbone when the exit gate is released.
• Bails too small for large cows and are not adjustable during season.
• Dark doorways that cows see as threats and cause panic.
• Blind right angle bends when cows have to leave the parlour
• Clusters not aligned correctly behind cows, so cups are pulled over and some teats do not milk out evenly.
• Pits that are too low for the milkers so they end up with backache and the cows suffer.
• Repairs to the milking plant that never get done and that frustrate tired milkers, and again the cows suffer.
• 
  
• It's a good idea when planning a new plant to visit other plants working and talk to the milkers - not the salesmen. Offer to help milk their cows to see how things work and note cow and human behaviour.
• Count how many times the cows dung each row in the herringbone. If there are more than two/row, there is a behaviour/management problem.
  

Training cattle to lead

• This is best done when calves. Put a halter on the calf and tie it up for short periods (e.g. 30 minutes) twice a day, and feed the calf when it is tied.
• Groom and handle it when tied up.
• Then move the feed away some distance and lead the calf to the feed.
• Then start to lead it around without feed - giving it a gentle push from behind as well as some light pressure on the lead. Get someone to help do the pushing.
• Teaching mature stock to lead is not easy as they are so strong.
• Use the tie up technique (30 minute spells) for 2-3 periods each day for a week, grooming and massaging at the same time. Offer some feed too while grooming.
• Then try leading over short distances with help from an assistant pushing the animal from behind when it baulks. Don't let it get away on you or it will remember its success and do it again. Wear safety boots with plenty of grip.
• To get animals used to halters and restraint, some stockpersons tie two animals of similar weights together with a 500mm chain including a swivel, so they get used to their heads being pulled.
• Try this trick with animals of different weight so the large one teaches the lighter one to lead.
  
• Some stud breeders use a donkey to teach show cattle to lead. The donkey and cattle beast are tied together with a short chain and swivel and are left to graze together for a few weeks.
• If you have to start with older heavier animals (e.g. Mature cows and bulls), then it‘s hard work and can be dangerous. Some stockmen halter the beast to a frontend loader set at the height of the human handler who stands in the correct position. The tractor is then slowly reversed for very short intervals till the beast realises it has to move forwards and follow the handler. This should only be done for short intervals.
  

Solving milking problems

• This is big business for special consultants.
• A major problem is poor cow flow from the paddock to the milking parlour.
• It's a good idea to go back to the paddock and follow the cows home.
• It's also a good idea to get down and see the world from cow eye height.
• Problem may not always be where you think they are. Remember the cows can remember and may not go into the parlour because they are scared to go out e.g. a slippy floor.
• ALWAYS start off by checking the milking machine. There is nothing more important in cow comfort. It should have two checks by an approved service agent twice a year.
• It's very revealing to video the milking and analyse it with the staff later. They often get some surprises to find the things they do and didn't realise it.
  

Welfare issues (dairy cows)

• Calving problems – Dystocia.
• Cow-calf separation - the stress involved.
• Mastitis - the pain and stress.
• The use of Intra Vaginal Devices and Inductions.
• Lameness- the pain and stress of sore feet.
• Metabolic diseases.
• Downer cow management.
• Flies.
• Lack of shade and shelter
• Horn damage
• 

Horned and polled cattle should not be mixed - especially in close confinement

• Dehorning/disbudding done without anaesthetics.
• Ingrowing horns.

Not ingrowing yet but soon will be.

• Tail docking - especially of adult cows.
• Transport - the long distances cows travel to slaughter and cows ferry crossings.
• Emaciation - skinny cows and why they are left to get to this state.

• Heifers - introduction to herd.
• Bobby calf - disposal and transport.
• Castration - methods used in relation to the age of the animal.

Welfare issues (beef cattle).

• Transport and handling.
• Metabolic diseases.
• Parasites - internal and external.
• Calving problems – Dystocia.
• Lack of shade and shelter.
• Flies.
• Rubbish lying around farms.
  

Animal behaviour and welfare: Horse Part 4

HORSE BEHAVIOUR BASICS: PART 4

Behaviour problems: Welfare problems

By Dr Clive Dalton

What is a horse?

Horses are large and can do a lot of damage to humans. It's surprising that horses don't realise this and apply their physical advantage more often. New Zealand ACC statistics confirm the high accident rate caused by horses!

Horses bite, kick with both front and back feet, and crush, and they can combine these for simultaneous delivery! They also have good memories of their handlers and events and this is a major problem in trying to correct problems, as a handler may fix a problem and the horse will have learned to behave with him/her.

But there is no guarantee that the cure will be applied to other people or be long-term and a smart horse will wait for the right opportunity to get its own back. The main question is whether the problem can be corrected, and how reliable the "cure" will be in relation to the experience, age and size of the owner/rider/driver.


1. Aggression

• Horses show many forms of aggression from mild to very severe.
• There are many causes of aggression, both genetic and environmental. The latter is more important as genetically aggressive horses usually end up as pet food.
• Aggression is a normal part of stallion behaviour around mares, but they can be very tractable outside the mating season and are regularly ridden and raced. Some famous thoroughbred stallions have been man-killers but were kept for the high racing success of their progeny - only accepting being handled by certain individuals.
• Even after you have found a "cure", the question will remain of whether you can trust the horse after that?
  

Possible cures/Prevention

• Try and work out how the horse learned the habit as you may be able to use this to evaluate your chances of coming up with a "lasting" and reliable cure. It may not be.
• Go back to building a strong bond with the animal and always be alert to the things that trigger the aggression.
• Have a short, sharp reprimand ready as soon as you see the action about to happen so the horse is surprised and associates the shock with its action. A delay in the action will not work as the horse will not associate it with the action.
• An example is a horse that bites when you tighten the girth. A sharp blow with the elbow as it's teeth come round is usually very effective if the problem is mild.
• If the risks of failure and human safety are too great, consider euthanasia.
  

2. Boredom
This is a common problem for confined horses in stables and small paddocks and it can lead to:

• Self mutilation.
• Standing weaving in stall or paddock.
• Stall walking or fence walking in the paddock.
• Stall digging or digging holes in the paddock.
• Kicking the back wall of the stall.
• Eating the bedding - especially when it is soiled.
• Chewing gates and fences - often made of chemically-treated timber.
• Crib biting, cribbing or wind sucking.
• Cutting down feed to prevent obesity or reducing high-protein pasture to prevent founder of the foot adds to boredom.
  

Possible cures/Prevention

• Feed hay to keep the horse busy as hay has low nutritional value.
  
• Make the horse work to get its hay by putting it in a raised hay rack.
• Provide toys in the box, e.g. hang beach balls from the ceiling.
• Let the horse see other horses next door. They should be in sight, smell and sound of each other.
• Give regular exercise and lunging is the easiest way.
  

3. Sexual problems in stallions

• Stud stallions live a most un-natural life being the theoretical Alpha male of his stud of mares, but only having contact with them for very short periods when they need mating. He is not even allowed to go visit the mares to identify those on heat as this is done by a teaser stallion that he would like to kill.
• After a couple of mounts he returns to his physical isolation, and its not surprising that boredom and breeding problems can result.
• These are such a major problem that specialist equine behaviour veterinarians travel the world to help solve stallion libido and infertility problems that cost millions of dollars.
• The causes of the problems have been surprising from major issues to very minor ones. It may have been an unfortunate early mating experience, the stud groom's behaviour, the place where the mating takes place, injury to the stallion when mounting, the smell of the place or the people, and many more.
  

Possible cures/Prevention

• Allow the stallion to have as near a natural life as possible in close contact with other horses that do not threaten his status.
• Provide plenty of exercise.
• Provide plenty of visual contact with other horses (not stallions).
• Provide "a paddock friend" if the stallion is run outside. Or if boxed all the time, provide some form of activity like a hanging ball. In one case a hen living in the stallion's box was shown to be effective company for him!
  

4. Horses hard to catch

• Not being able to go up to a horse and put a halter on it is very frustrating. It can waste hours of time if you have to chase the animal, try to block it in a corner of the paddock with the risk of being kicked, or run it into a yard.
• The horse often becomes more cunning with time, and other horses can learn the habit from it.
• It often starts with the horse having a bad experience once it was caught- and remembering it. If the habit is well entrenched, then it's sometimes not worth trying to try to correct it.
  

Possible cures/Prevention

• Form a good bond with the horse during its initial schooling so it always associates you with security.
• Get the horse to want to come to you – because of the mutual bond which it wants reinforced.
• If it's an older horse, then try to rebuild the bond by lunging the horse in a round yard using the Monty Roberts principles. Donkeys have been used in times of war for transport and food. Owners stress the very special bond that can be built between donkey and caregiver and is much different between man and horse.
• Use feed to catch the horse - but this can have problems the day you forget the feed!
• Make coming into the yard or stable a positive experience for the horse - generally to an attractive feed.
  

5. Bolting

• This is a terrifying and dangerous experience for both human and horse and can lead to very bad injuries.
• Horses are a panic species and use speed to get away from predators and threats so the cause is often a fright or fear of the unfamiliar.
  

Possible cures/Prevention

• Get the horse checked by a veterinarian to see if there are any physical problems such as pain that could trigger the action.
• Try to find out why and how the horse developed the habit - it was most likely some bad experience in its early schooling and a poor bond with the owner.
• If you can find the cause - condition the horse to the threat so it builds up the trust that it will be safe with you. But then you will have to check that the horse will apply the same trust with other humans.
• Anticipate the trigger to the action so you can be ahead of the horse's thinking to stop the action.
  
• The horse may not have been "mouthed" correctly when initially broken in and has learned not to respond the bit. It may even be able to get its tongue over the bit. Check that the correct tack is being used and everything is the correct fit.
  

6. Bucking and rearing

• Again these vices can lead to terrible accidents to both humans and horses.
• Horses buck to free themselves from threats and predators - seeing their riders in this light.
• They rear again to get rid of their threat or predator or in reaction to a sudden fright or novelty item that they are not familiar with.
  

Possible cures/Prevention

• Try to find out how and when the problem started as it may indicate how to fix it.
• Get the horse checked by a vet to see if it has any physical problems.
• Check all the tack to see everything fits well and is correctly adjusted.
• Re-socialise the horse with the trainer and proceed with schooling to see if this solves the problem.
• Then check if its new manners apply to other riders. This is often seen with children's ponies that don't buck off adults but will start their tricks again when the kids remount.
• The horse even after re-training may not be trustworthy and should be disposed of before they cause serious human injury.
  

7. Refusal to go on a float or truck

• This problem arises with a horse that either has never been loaded on to a horse float before, or that goes quite happily on to certain vehicles but not on to others.
• The horse sees the float or truck as a dark hole full of lurking predators.
• It can be dangerous for both humans and horse because as frustration builds and the horse becomes more stressed, it is much more likely to kick someone.
• Panic and noise is generated and when the whips come out, the horse becomes more determined not to go into the vehicle.
  

Possible cures/Prevention

• Horses should be trained to go on to a range of different vehicles from being foals.
• If it is your own float, put the horse's feed inside so it gets used to going in.
• Then try and borrow a different float to test the horse.
• Use a double-horse float and put a horse in there to attract it in.
• Get it to follow another familiar horse moving into a double float.
• Blindfold it and lead it into the float.
• Make sure the ramp has good foot grips.
• It's better to put a rope around the rear of the horse to push it in than drag it from its halter. Keep well clear of its back feet.
• Try to avoid hitting the horse unless you see it will bring positive results. If the horse thinks it has won the battle - it will be all the worse next time.
• You may need to get veterinary help to tranquilise the horse to load it.
  

8. Problems of the horse in work



Work or harness horses show a range of problems such as:Refusing the collar.

• Failing to take the load and pull forward.
• Failing to push backwards.
• Failing to stop when going backwards.
• Taking little notice of the bit or the reins.
• Getting its tongue over the bit.
• In double harness, one horse learns to stop pulling.
  

Possible cures/Prevention

• Try to find out what caused the problem in the first case.
• This may not be possible if the horse was purchased as an older animal.
• Be aware of the circumstances that trigger the behaviour and try to preempt it.
• The horse may be well entrenched in its behaviour and is too much of a danger to people by keeping it and trying to break the habit.
• A horse with a hard mouth has developed this by poor initial schooling and apart from using a severe bit, not much can be done. Get a specialist to check it's mouth.
• Refusing the collar. Make sure the horse comes up against a solid object with its rear end when it backs to avoid the collar.
• Pulling forward and backing problems can lead to great danger for the human driver. The horse usually has developed the habit because of fear and panic. Check all the harness for correct fitting and blinkers may help. Use an assistant to hold the horse's head until it gains confidence to be directed by the driver.
• The problem may be too entrenched to be effectively cured so disposal of the horse should be considered before some human gets seriously injured.
• In double harness the horse that stops pulling can usually be fixed by a sharp reprimand but it will keep trying to get away with it thinking that you have stopped taking notice!
  

Horse welfare problems

• Feral horses and their mustering and slaughter to reduce numbers and prevent environmental damage.
• Transport of horses to slaughter premises in unsuitable vehicles.
• Slaughter of surplus horses and exporting their meat for human consumption.
• Starvation - horses grazing horse-sick paddocks with no feed.
• Horses used in rodeos - for calf roping, barrel racing and buck jumping.
• Horses used in circuses.
• The whipping of horses in flat and harness racing.
• Injury to sport horses in show jumping and cross-country events.
• The shoeing of horses which some people see as unnatural and stressful.
  

Animal behaviour and welfare: Poultry Part 1

POULTRY BEHAVIOUR PART 1

Origin: Senses: Social behaviour

By Dr Clive Dalton

Poultry origin and behaviour

• Modern poultry were domesticated fairly early in man's development from wild jungle fowl still found today in open forest habitats throughout the world. The ancestors of the domestic fowl soon learned to live with man in confined areas.
• Domestication and early selection of these birds developed such traits as leanness, aggression, activity, pecking, leg slashing, social responsiveness and particular colours of feathers that were used for decoration.
• In later historic times such as in the Roman Empire, egg and meat production received emphasis and was greatly improved.
• The modern laying hen and broiler chicken have both attracted more concern about their behaviour and welfare than any other farm animal.
• This is because of the intensive systems in which they are kept - seen as "factory farming" which has gained an international negative image.
  

Senses

Sight

• Chick embryos respond to light as early as 17 days after the start of incubation.
• A hen cannot rotate its eye very much but they can see a field of 300 , with a binocular field of 26.
• Hens follow moving objects using the mobility of their head.
• Their acuity (sharpness) is good and they have good distance vision.
• They characteristically lift their heads before jumping and tests have shown that they can discriminate between squares, triangles and red and black dots.
• Studies show newly-hatched chicks prefer to peck at blue objects rather than green or orange ones, although orange is preferred before green but not before red.
• Chicks can differentiate between red-dyed liquid and blood. Blood was very aversive.
• Chicks learn quickly to avoid coloured feed if it makes them ill, and prefer to peck at round rather than flat objects.
  

Smell

• Not much is known about how important smell is to poultry.
• Hens are not keen on food that smells of mould or is sour, so presumably smell is involved in this feed rejection.
• It's suggested that birds can definitely smell blood.
  

Hearing

• Hens don't have an ear lobe but they have a well-developed ear.
• Calls produced by hens range from 250 cpm (the broody hen "cluck") to about 3000 cpm (the distress call).
• Studies confirmed hens can hear sounds as high as 8000 cpm.
• Hens hear in a range from 60-11950Hz with highest sensitivity from 815-2000 Hz which is their normal hearing range.
  

Taste

• Hens have about 340 taste buds mainly on the palate and floor of their oral cavity.
• They are rather indifferent to sugars but can detect glucose to about 2.5% in solution.
• They tolerate a range of acid and alkaline tastes, and are sensitive to and avoid salty feeds.
• Taste determines whether a hen accepts or rejects a feed and similarly to water.
• Hens can detect water temperature differences of 2.8 C. They will reject water that rises 5.5 C above their body temperature although they will readily drink freezing water.
  

Touch

• Stroking, rotating and turning hens upside down will immobilise a hen for various periods of time.
• In this state, although fully alert to their sensory surroundings, they can be conditioned or gentled to humans or other frightening objects.
• After return to normal, they will show reduced fear to the conditioned object.
• Touching the back of a hen will often cause it to respond by a sexual crouch, especially if it is low in social rank.
  

Learning ability

• Hens soon learn to pull, tug, peck and scratch, and their general natural activity means they will work at tasks for quite long periods.
• Hens have limited ability to generalise, i.e. they stick to the task in hand and don't drift off target.
• They are good at visual discrimination tasks.
• Their limited flexibility may be an advantage in intensive conditions where they will not be bored as quickly as a species like the pig that can generalise.
• In maze tests hens ranked after man, pig, dog, goat and before rat, rabbit, cat and turtle in ability to remember.
• In a Hebb-Williams closed-field test, hens ranked after dogs, cows, sheep, pigs, cats, rats and ferrets but better than pigeons, guinea pigs or possums.

Social behaviour

Vocal communication

• Being a social bird from the open forest, the hen has developed a wide range of sounds for communication.
• Studies have classified 12 chick calls and 22 calls by adults. These range from clucks, cackles, chirps and cries to keep in contact with mates.
• Calls heard most often and recognised by humans are food calls, predator alarms, pre- and post-laying calls and roosters crowing. Others are more specific which humans find hard to identify.
• Another classification describes these:
• Vocal calls related to fear and predators
• Physiological calls to do with brooding, feeding, contact and pleasure
• Signals expressing pain, frustration, fighting and crowing.
• There's a well-recognised daily pattern of crowing near dawn followed by feeding calls, egg-laying calls and finally roosting calls. Chicken distress calls immediately get the attention of their broody mother, and the regular "cluck -cluck" is a reassuring call from the mother to the chicks.
• Large groups of hens can create very high noise levels. They are around 72-87dB at normal times, 73-100 dB at feeding and 75-85 dB during egg laying.
• A study showed that laying hens were affected by levels above 83dB, while higher levels induced fear and panic.
  

Body posture

• When hens can see each other, they communicate by body postures e.g. head up or down, tail up or down, feathers spread or not.
• The tail is especially important and studies of feral birds showed that they stood upright with tail erect with wings diamond-pointed almost vertically down. This is called "wing-down alert".
• Body postures are particularly important to dominant males to send messages to his harem and possible competitors for his job.
• Individual recognition.Studies have shown that birds recognise each other using a combination of comb, head and wattle. Single elements were more difficult for hens to recognise, but the comb was the simplest.
• Colour changes to plumage were noticed, with intense colours more easily seen than pale colours.
• Only abrupt and very dramatic changes cause a hen to be treated as a stranger.
  

Pecking and peck order

• Pecking is very much a species-specific behaviour of hens. Hens peck to:
• Release them from the shell.
• To find feed and eat it.
• To drink.
• To obtain space.
• To get recognition from others.
• To mate.
• And many more highly sophisticated actions.
• Hens maintain a personal space around their heads and keep a distance from each other by holding their heads at an angle and maintaining a specific body orientation.
• If a direct head-to-head stance is taken, then pecking will ensue.
• The main purpose of pecking is in eating and it's a very precisely tuned movement of the head and neck, the feed being first picked up and then in a further movement of the head, it is swallowed.
• Incorrect timing of these movements would severely jar the neck. The bird's binocular vision is important in judging the distance to peck with the eye membranes closed at the moment of impact.
• The relationship of body stance and head position is important during pecking attacks. These include threats in which one bird lifts its head above the level of the other bird's head, then pecks the comb, head, neck or nape, wattles and then chases the subordinate away.
• If two birds face up to each other to fight, they peck, kick with their feet and slash with their spurs. Crouching or running away shows submission. These fights are not common outdoors but they increase as stocking rates increase towards 400 square cm/bird.
• In free-living birds, pecking is greatly reduced when males are present, as presumably the peck order is more clearly established.
• Pecking is often greatest in adolescent hens and observations have shown the incidence to be 30-50% greater on floors than in cages. Pecking was 70% higher when males were absent.
• Practical suggestions to help stabilise a peck order quickly to avoid any negative impact on egg production are:
• Form new groups of hens by mixing them before they start laying.
• Do not revolve birds around groups - leave them settled.
• Provide plenty of feed and watering points and plenty of floor space when the flock is settling.
• If two groups have to be mixed, put equal numbers of each subgroup together.
• Make sure males have been together in a group before mixing with the hens.
• Putting a male among hens will reduce pecking.
• Much of the pecking in caged birds occurs during feeding bouts, and depends on the feeder space and number of birds in the cage.
  

Dust bathing

• Hens love to dust bath, and it is clearly an innate behaviour.
  
• Dust bathing behaviour actions are even seen by birds bred with no feathers.
• We assume that hens dust bathe to control parasites and align their feathers. Normally free-living hens spend their time dispersed except when it comes to dust bathing, which they seem to love to do communally.
• Dust bathing is also thought to be a type of vacuum activity seen in birds that have been released from cages after at least 100 hours without a bath, or in birds with previous experience of the practice.
  
• Dust bathing usually starts with pecking into an area of dry dust, squatting in it, turning and raising dust into the feathers and then shaking it out again.
  

Preening and feather care

• In preening, the hen raises the feathers and cleans them by stroking and nibbling them with the beak.
• Grooming in the hen is described as actions related to maintaining body surface including preening with the beak, scratching with the foot, dust bathing and oiling.
• Oil is produced from the urophygial gland near the tail and birds use their beak to spread oil from it over their feathers.
• Hens preen or groom to remove lice, and females are more efficient groomers than males.
• Hens also spend more time grooming and using their oil gland than cocks.
  

Other comfort behaviours

• Bill wiping is seen after birds have been eating wet mash.
• The bird wipes one side of the beak on the ground, and in one continuous movement wipes the other side.
• Unilateral stretching of the leg and wing is also common comfort behaviour along with wing flapping while standing still.
  

Roosting or perching

• The feet of a bird are designed for holding on to branches while resting and roosting.
• The wild jungle fowl roosts up off the ground in a communal roost in the centre of its territory.
• Wild birds will also perch at different levels.
• Depriving birds of these behaviours is one of the main concerns with modern poultry husbandry.
  

Disclaimer

This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Animal behaviour and welfare: Poultry Part 2

POULTRY BEHAVIOUR PART 2

Reproduction: Nesting: Brooding: Hen & chicks: Chick behaviour

By Dr Clive Dalton

The male

• Males normally reach sexual maturity between 12-16 weeks old. This varies with management system and genetics, with the feeding and lighting regime having a major effect.
• Crowing by the male increases greatly between 24 and 68 weeks. Crowing is not related to the male's sex drive or ability to mate, but it does indicate a cock's general vigour of pre-mating courtship, and appears to be related more to aggression than fertility.
• Scoring males for sexual activity by counting the number of mounts in a given period does not appear to be very useful.
• Hatchability percentage and male mating ability can be used to measure commercial success in hatcheries and these traits are critical in profit. Hatchability has varied from 0-74% in some studies.
  
• Males have a very elaborate courting ritual. It has not changed from its Jungle Fowl ancestors.
• The cock approaches the hen that either runs, side-steps or crouches.
• This stimulates the male to waltz, trailing a wing before mounting.
• During mounting the cock treads with his feet on the hen's back.
• Then their vents (cloacas) come in contact and the male ejaculates.
• The cock steps off, may court again or stands, shakes himself and may run off.
  

Factors involved in success

• Previous mating experience by the male is important.
• Heavy-breed males court less and have fewer matings than light-breed males, but the heavies have higher sperm numbers.
• Females crouched more often for young males which did more mating than older males.
• High social-rank males initially mate more hens than low-ranked males, the advantage is short lived.
• In controlled environments, more matings occur 15 hours after lights on which means a peak (80%) between 4pm and 6pm depending on the lighting regime.
• Male/female ratios of 1:5, 1:10; 1:12, or 3:40 were equally successful.
• Changes in light pattern increase or stimulate male sperm production, though normal semen production occurs with standard light levels.
• Depriving males of water for 48 hours will reduce semen production for up to 6 weeks.
• High levels of iodine (5000 ppm) and mouldy feeds reduce sperm quality.
• Sperm production is improved in low temperatures.
• In sexually active males, massage will not produce semen as it will in low-activity cocks.
• Males will mate from 1 to 53 times a day.
• Males kept together will mount (tread) each other.
• Courtship. Caged males spend more time waltzing than colony males, the latter moving up on hens from the rear rather than the side.
• Males in floor pens did more fighting, courting and mating than those in colony cages. Females avoided males more in the floor pens.
• Bouncing insecure floors upset males more than rigid floors.
  

The capon

• This is a castrated male.
• Castration can be done surgically, removing the testicle through an incision in the body wall.
• It is also done by using oestrogenic hormone implants, if the market allows this practice. This will stop testicle, comb, and wattle growth.
• There is no need for this practice today as modern meat chickens grow at such a rate that castration produces no extra advantage.
  

The female

• The start of sexual behaviour is greatly affected by the environment, especially feeding, lighting regime and genetic strain.
• In the wild and in free-range systems, young females (pullets) show mating behaviour as early as 18 weeks of age, but this varies greatly.
• Most hens, regardless of breed, start to show mating behaviour 4-8 days before the start of the new laying season - whether there is a male present of not.
• Egg laying and nesting.The egg laying behaviour of hens is very elaborate, and selection of a nest is done with great care, often in association with the male.
• Studies have shown that nesting activity and ovulation are linked so a good nest favours high production.
• Nesting is characterised by secrecy and careful concealment, and nest selection has four phases.
• First - seeking a place to lay. This can be very protracted as the hen becomes restless, paces about giving the pre-laying call and showing characteristically body postures. In a deep litter laying house, she examines the walls and corners.
• Second - inspection of a number of possible sites between feeding, preening or sleeping, and finally pushing into one of them. Inside she continues her examination, lifting her legs with care with her neck horizontal.
• Third - settling, squatting, making a nest hole by crouching and rotating several times using her keel bone to shape the nest. Then she sits and lays, often standing to expel the egg.
• Fourth - after laying she may continue to examine the egg with her beak then rises and returns to the flock cackling.
• Nesting behaviour in cages: In the limited space of a cage, the hen adopts the same behavioural sequences but obviously their expression has to be modified.
• In a multiple-bird cage, which most commercial ones are, the hen about to lay searches the cage pushing other hens away. She may creep between the legs of other hens, sometimes 100 times before she settles.
• She spends laying time putting her head between the wires, pushing and often being pecked by birds in the next cage.
• Intentional movements to try to fly may be shown by tail extended and wings slightly raised. She may even try to climb the cage.
• Then suddenly she squats and lays. Her breathing rate is high and her calls are generally weak. Eggs are often laid in the same area of the cage before they roll away.
• Caged hens paces to fill up the time normally spent in the pre-laying behaviour seen in free-range birds. Pacing varies between strains from 100-2600 paces before laying.
• Birds have been recorded as spending 55% of their time resting, 21% eating, 17% laying and 7% drinking.
  

Nest design

• In the wild Jungle fowl, nesting is mainly on the ground in a bamboo habitat with semi darkness and shadow patterns.
• In domestic fowls, we want them to nest in boxes off the ground to keep eggs clean, but which still mimic their natural preferences.
• Generally one nest is needed for every four birds. Nests should be clean, and have ample litter such as straw (a favourite), shavings, sawdust, wood fibre, and so on. The key is to stop birds sleeping in the nest boxes or using them as roosts.
• The box should be large enough for the bird to turn round.
• Studies have shown a bird preference for a triangle-shaped entrance, and some for a square one. Boxes are best sited 450-500 mm above the ground litter.
• Leaving dummy eggs in the nest is an old trick to encourage hens to lay, but the hen is probably more attracted to the nest litter than the eggs.
• Some systems use communal nests of 60 x 200 cm that can accommodate 50 birds.
• Hens have been identified as those that prefer solitary nests, and others that prefer communal nests. Communal nests have more behavioural problems caused by shy birds not wanting to use them, and birds crowding inside them and keeping others out.
• Breeders use trap nests where the bird triggers a slide with her tail, and has to be let out manually after recording her Identification number with her egg.
  

Eggs and egg problems

• The wild Jungle fowl has a brood of about 6 chicks, with egg clutches from 2-10. Free-range commercial hens produce around 220 eggs/year, with those on deep litter around 245 and fully caged birds around 260 eggs/year.
  
• Cracked eggs are a problem and vary with the husbandry system. Risks are greater on wire floors than on litter. In cages the floor slope and wire gauge are among many variables concerned.
• Ground laying is natural in the wild fowl but eggs laid on the floor are a major loss in commercial poultry production. They have to be picked up and are dirty, and risk being broken and starting hens to eat their eggs.
• To change the behaviour and stop floor laying - these points are worth trying:
• Start with nest boxes on the floor and slowly raise them.
• Don't make the floor litter too deep. Use 7-8cm rather than 15cm of litter.
• Pick up all floor eggs regularly and put real or dummy eggs in the nest boxes.
• Direct access from roosts to nests will allow shy birds in to lay.
• Make the nests attractive with regularly renewed litter.
• Keep the nests in semi darkness. Make sure they are vermin proof.
• Try to eliminate dark corners in the pen.
  

Broody hens

• It's a strong innate behaviour of the hen that after she has laid a clutch of eggs, she goes broody and has a strong desire to sit on them. After brooding and rearing her chicks, the hen will probably moult her feathers before starting to lay again.
• Selection has been strongly against these traits in modern strains of laying hens as they take up time that should be used for production.
• To get good results from a broody hen, try these management tips below.
• Make a nest from a hollowed-out turf (grass up) which you can keep damp during incubation to maintain humidity in the nest. Line it with plenty of straw.
• Treat the broody for external parasites before sitting.
• Let her sit on a few dummy eggs for a few days to see if she will sit tight. Then replace them with the eggs to be hatched - usually 10-15.
• Allow the hen off the nest each day for exercise and feeding. Make sure she defecate and doesn't get constipated.
• If she won't move, lift her off making sure she has no eggs under her wings.
• Make sure she sits till all the chicks are hatched. This should be 20-21 days after setting.
  

The hen and her chicks

• Studies of wild fowl and free-range domestic hens show the importance of the very strong maternal behaviour that develops between the hen and her chicks.
• Chicks are very precocious and are active very soon after hatching. In the wild survival success depends on rapid bonding between mother and offspring.
• It's very important that chicks imprint on their mother after hatching. They'll follow any moving object, which contrasts with the background about one hour after hatching.
• Proper imprinting and bonding can take from 9-20 hours after hatching.
• The hen "clucks" and the chick "peeps" and the more the hen clucks the less the chicks peep.
• Chicks moving with their dam utter contentment twitters or distress cheeps. If the hen stops and calls, the chicks remain stationary. If she's too far away, the chicks peep and she goes to brood them.
• If the call of a strange mother is played, the chicks stay still for longer and peep less often. This reduces the chance of being attacked by a strange hen.
• The length and loudness of the call control chick behaviour, while the sound frequency leads to recognition of their own parent's voice.
• Chicks feed freely n the presence of their own dam's call while alien calls will halt feeding altogether.
• As chicks cannot recognise each other much before 10 days of age, the hen and her calling system keeps the brood together and prevents aggression among the chicks.
• The hen also teaches the chicks to react to food and predators.
  
• Chicks normally show fear 33-36 hours after hatching, but this is extended if they are kept in isolation. The experience of communal feeding needs to be achieved before 3 days post hatching.
• Wild spring hatched chicks have been recorded as walking over 3km/day with the hen walking closely with them for 24% of the time.
• Their active working day lasted 16 hours and the hen initiated most of the behaviour, especially feeding, tidbiting, pecking, and scratching the ground. She also prevented fights between chicks.
• A broody hen and her chicks will keep to themselves and threaten other hens that come within 6m.
• In the wild, chicks start to be left on the ground at nights by the dam at 5-6 weeks, when she returned to roost in a tree. By 10-12 weeks old when the chicks were feathered, the hen started to threaten them - their days with Mum were over.
• The hen allows her chicks to run ahead of her before weaning, but they walk behind her afterwards because she claims a higher social status.
• At 16-18 weeks old, the brood breaks up and adult behaviour patterns begin.
• A hen will accept strange chicks 2-5 days after hatching if they are the same colour as her own. Thereafter she may kill them.
  

Other chick behaviour

• Chicks are very active and when running, they extend their wings and flap them for use as breaks.
• They will jump on to feeders but do not perch till 4-6 weeks old.
• They stretch in a very precise way with a wing and leg on one side stretched out pointing to the rear with the wing primary feathers displayed.
• Chicks spend a lot of time chasing and if they turn, face up and stare at each other, this can lead to regular fights by 2 weeks of age. These fights are only between two birds at a time (usually males) where they grab at neck feathers and pull the adversary to the ground.
• Pecking and feather pulling clearly induce pain from day 13 and by day 18, weaker chicks can be pulled down and trodden.
• Dust bathing starts at day 3 and is a copied activity.
• Preening of wing and breast feathers may start at day 2, but no preen gland is used until day 14. The preening spells may last up to 4 minutes.
• Chicks will start picking at toes by day 10. If conditions are hot, dry and too bright, they'll pick at wing and tail feathers until they bleed as well as picking at pasted up vents.
• Chicks will pick at any bright object in the litter which may include nails and staples that can cause death if swallowed.
• Litter scratching is a very stereotypical action from day 2. Its best described as a scratch with the right leg, then two with the left, then one with the right and so on, while the litter is flicked over with the beak.
• The whole sequence takes about 15 seconds and occurs in the best-lit areas first. If the environment is too cold, litter may be eaten and the gizzard impacted.
• A study of chicks up to 10 weeks old showed many behavioural activities:
• Resting was high near hatching, declined till 3.5 weeks, rose to 8 weeks, then declined again.
• Females rested more than males.
• Leg stretching increased (especially in males) to a peak at 4-7 weeks old and then declined.
• Scratching increased in the first week, declined to almost nothing at 7 weeks and then reappeared at 9 weeks old.
• Preening increased with feather growth while running about decreased with age.
• Frolicking increased up to week 4 and then declined as sparring started and reached a peak at week 5.
• Agonistic (fighting) encounters replaced sparring by week 7 and this pecking reached a peak at 8 weeks by which time a clear peck order was established.
  

Temperature for chicks

• The chick's first response after hatching is to seek warmth and cover. They are very vulnerable to draughts. Body temperature at birth is 38.6 C rising to 40 C by day 9.
• If heating is inadequate, chicks huddle together in a semicircle facing outwards and can easily smother in corners away from draughts or in sunny spots.
• When too hot they disperse away from the heat source.
• Chicks will not move out into colder temperatures for food before 5-7 days.
• Low rearing temperatures (e.g. 19.5°C) will slow growth, cause earlier feathering but increase size of organs such as the heart, thyroid and adrenal glands compared to chicks reared at 30°C.
  

Drinking behaviour of chicks

• Chicks dehydrate quickly at the high temperatures of rearing, so they must find water quickly after hatching and learn to drink.
• Drinking often starts with the chick pecking at a bubble, and some water movement helps to start them drinking.
• A good idea is to lay paper on the floor and place the feed and water on that. The chicks will discover both by pecking. Remove the paper after a week as it will be soiled and by then they should all have learned.
• Be guided by the smallest chicks as they'll be slowest to learn.
• Provide 24 hours of light at this very vulnerable learning stage.
• By 3½ weeks, a chick will have drinking sessions of a minute long, and drink 11 times with a few seconds pause between each.
• Chick drinks by placing the beak in the water, scooping up a beak-full which is then swallowed by holding the head horizontally or slightly raised.
• Drinker design has an important effect on chick drinking behaviour. Some trough designs are better than others at encouraging social facilitation in drinking, and some encourage roosting on the drinker. This is a fertile area for behavioural research.
  

Eating behaviour of chicks

• Food recognition by the chick is complex.
• They will peck indiscriminately at various objects in their environment such as sand grains, shiny objects, other chicks and so on. They achieve success in finding food mostly by trial and error.
• If reared by a broody hen, the advantages of being taught by her tidbiting for food are obvious. She uses her vocal calls to encourage and guide them to eat the food items she indicates.
• The use of glitter tape around the troughs or glass marbles among the feed is sometimes used to encourage chicks to start eating. Some starter feeds are often made up into three-dimensional crumbs to be more attractive, and feed is often placed on egg trays for the same purpose.
• Studies showed that with a 10 hour light day regime, chicks up to 3 days old only spent 30% of their time eating, but by day 10, this had increased to nearly 60%.
• Chicks ate 34 times/day on day 3 and 123 times/day on day 10. Other chicks were observed to eat solid feed 30-25 times/day and they drank water 22-45 times/day.
• As age increases, the number of feeding times dropped but total feed eaten increased.
  

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Animal behaviour and welfare: Poultry Part 3

POULTRY BEHAVIOUR Part 3

Beak trimming: Chick handling: Lighting: Stocking density

By Dr Clive Dalton

Beak trimming

• Beaks are trimmed to allow birds to eat but not peck each other. It's a very controversial practice and is high on the hit list of animal welfarists to be banned.
• For day-old chicks in New Zealand the Code of Welfare No. 18 states not more than 2mm should be trimmed off the beak and for 10-day old chicks, not more than 3mm off the beak.
• The Code says that further trimming should not be done unless there's a need to prevent cannibalism during the laying period. If properly done in the first place, further trimming should not be needed.
• Care is needed to have the blade sharp, at the correct heat, and to remove the correct amount of beak with least stress to the birds.
• Poor trimming can set a flock back by 2-3 weeks because of burnt tongues and nostrils that are slow to heal. This reduces feed and water intake, lowered body weight and production.
• Studies showed that pecks from birds with trimmed beaks were largely ignored, compared to pecks from intact beaks. Trimmed birds showed higher levels of pecking but trimming did not change social ranking. Indeed the trimmed birds had to peck more to maintain their social rank.
• In well-run cage systems where cannibalism is rare, beak trimming is not needed. The key point then is to fix the cause of cannibalism first, rather than see beak trimming as the solution.
  

Spectacles, polypeepers or blinkers

• To avoid the need for beak trimming, commercial plastic spectacles called "polypeepers" were developed.
• These are clipped on the beak of the bird so she cannot see forward to aim a peck at another bird.
• Welfarists don't see them as a popular solution to pecking and peck damage, but studies have shown them to be effective, and birds had freer access to feed.
• It takes a while for birds to get used to them and after about a month, birds studied were shown to produce more eggs for less feed and were much quieter than before.
• Their use depends on convenience of fitting them and replacing losses. They seem to have gone out of fashion.
• They are not recommended for use in New Zealand under normal circumstances.
  

Other mutilations

• Dubbing where the wattles of birds are trimmed (cauterised) to stop injury by pecking from other birds is not recommended in the MAF Code of Welfare No.18.
• Restricting the flight of birds by de-winging, pinioning, notching or tendon severing is considered to be cruel and not recommended by the MAF Code of Welfare No.18.
• Toe trimming is sometimes necessary in some free-range situations and the MAF Code of Welfare No. 18 says that if performed should be limited to the nail of the toe only.
  

Early handling of chicks

• The influence of early handling (before day 3) showed improved growth, more resistance to E.coli and an improved ability to cope with stress in later life.
• It clearly seems worthwhile for attendants to deliberately handle birds gently, speaking to them quietly and doing some feeding from the hand.
• This was called providing TGC - Tender, Gentle, Care.
• Frequent visits by attendants in this early stage are important. However it's hard to imagine any of this behavioural conditioning being done in large commercial outfits.
  

Feeding

• As modern poultry are selected for high performance - there is constant pressure on nutritionists to come up with diets that would meet the needs of these birds, whether they are layers or broilers. The massive pressure to reduce the price of eggs and meat to the consumer has driven this.
• Progress by nutritionists increases the challenge for the geneticists to find birds to exploit new diets, and vice versa. The incredible progress made has triggered plenty of behavioural problems and concern by welfarists.
• Concern for Feed Conversion Efficiency (FCE) has put emphasis on reducing size, so the bird's appetite would normally have been affected. This has been dealt with by selecting for appetite and developing very highly concentrated diets.
• Feed is the major cost (70-80%) in poultry production, and preventing waste has been important. Equipment designers have been challenged to stop birds wasting feed.
• Flicking feed from their trough as they eat is common. It seems as if the birds are sorting through to find more attractive pellets.
• Regular disturbance of the feed is done mechanically to provide some visual stimulus for the bird and maintain its interest.
• After eating, bored birds will drink and then regurgitate their stomach contents back into the trough - called polydipsia. This creates great interest by the other cage members who eat it ravishingly. It's very wasteful of feed.
• Both young and old birds soon learn to drink water from nipples that are triggered by a pecking action.
  

Lighting

• Modern poultry producers control the sexual development of laying birds and their subsequent egg production by modifying the lighting pattern. In general, birds are stimulated by increasing day length.
• There is a whole range of patterns used for laying hens. They may be "step-up" or "step-down" and light intensity can be changed.
• Birds seem to treat the longest dark period as night and the resumption of light as dawn. It seems that laying birds need no more than 17 hours of light for optimal production.
  

Stocking density

• Stocking density is another factor of great concern to welfarists. It is a major factor along with Feed Conversion Efficiency in profit.
• There are three main variables to consider in stocking density:
  

What is best for the bird?

• What conditions give maximum output for the enterprise?
• What colony size and space gives best economic return?
• Studies show that decreased area/bird reduced egg production, lowered body weight and increased mortality. (Currently most caged laying birds live on an area the size of an A4 sheet of paper).
• Increasing colony size depressed egg production, raised food consumption and increased mortality. These effects are independent and additive so you can get one or all of them at once.
  

Moulting

• Birds lose their feathers or moult when egg laying stops at the end of the season.
• A new generation of feathers grows and pushes the old ones out taking about 8-12 weeks to complete.
  
• This is seen as unproductive time in modern production systems so birds are not kept for a second season.
• Some producers cull up to 25 % of birds before a second season as egg number/bird is 20% lower, egg size is increased but quality and shell texture is lower.
• Breeders have selected strongly to reduce this moulting time - putting extra pressure on the bird to produce.
• To await the long wait for a full moult, some producers induce a "forced moult" by reducing feed and water intake, and reducing light. Anti-ovulatory drugs can also be used as well as an unbalance of minerals in the diet.
• This forced moult technique extends the birds normal pause which is the natural interval of 2-3 days after the hen has laid one egg/day for 6 days. There is debate as to whether an extended pause only is needed or whether a pause plus a moult is better.
• There is little pecking between hens during the moult, but it increases during the recovery period, especially around feed hoppers. Studied showed that hens that pecked a lot also showed higher feed intake.
• Hens have been shown to tolerate some force moulting regimes with no serious problems.
• The MAF Code of Welfare No. 18 says that forced moulting should only be done on healthy hens, under close management scrutiny and conditions that will not cause stress. Methods that totally deprive hens of food and water for more than 48 hours must not be used.
  

Animal behaviour and welfare: Poultry Part 4

POULTRY BEHAVIOUR PART 4

Layer housing systems: Feeding rhythms

By Dr Clive Dalton

Free range

• This is the traditional way laying hens were kept and still has the image of "farm fresh" eggs where birds have their complete freedom to live as nature intended.
• Low profits from free-range hens have been the driving force behind the move to intensification. But there are other disadvantages of free range listed below:
• Little protection from the weather
• More labour needed for feeding, egg collecting and moving houses.
• More feed/dozen eggs needed.
• The bird's diet may be unbalanced.
• Dirty eggs and fouled pastures.
• Lower egg quality, stale eggs and offensive flavours.
• Birds run risk of diseases from soil-borne infections.
• Greater incidence of internal and external parasites.
• Risks from predators.
• Poor working environment for staff.
• A very low percentage of producers use the system is only likely to remain if there is overwhelming pressure from Welfarists, and consumers are prepared to pay up to 20% more for eggs.
• Behaviour problems are few on this system as the unlimited space allows low-ranking birds freedom to escape molestation.
  
• Feather pecking can occur and may need beak trimming.
  
• Egg eating can be a problem as it's difficult to find the offending birds to cull them. Egg eating seems to start when birds discover a broken egg and find the contents attractive. Then they learn to break them with their beaks and are very hard to break from the habit.
  
• Filling eggs with mustard or bitter tasting flavours usually doesn't deter them. Culling is the best option before other birds learn from them. The problem is to find them - either by catching them in the act or looking for egg yolk on their beaks.
  

Slatted or wire floors

• Here hens are kept on totally slatted or wire mesh floors at high densities, e.g. up to 0.09 m²/bird.
• The system tries to be a compromise between cages and deep litter.
• Nest boxes are accessible from outside to avoid disturbing the birds.
• A perching area is the main feature of this system and is built over a dropping pit which is cleaned out once a year.
• The main behavioural concerns in these houses are as follows:
• Nests must be placed near the perching area.
• Eggs can be gathered easily.
• Ventilation system can handle the foul air from the droppings pit.
• Floor eggs can be a major problem if nesting boxes are not attractive.
• Long narrow pens are best to reduce interaction between birds.
• Inspection by the attendant can cause panic and bruising.
  

Deep litter

• Here, birds of all types are kept on litter at various stocking densities with full or partial environmental control.
• They are seen by those concerned about hen welfare as a much more acceptable system than cages.
• The litter is usually sawdust, although straw is used (called straw yards).
• Behaviour problems in deep litter houses include:
• Drop in egg production.
• Increased aggression - feather and vent pecking.
• Increased mortality from disease.
• Feed wastage.
• Floor laying.
• Here are some points to consider when trouble shooting:
• Temperature, humidity and ventilation.
• Access to feed.
• Condition of the litter - is it wet or dry.
• Ammonia smell.
• Lighting pattern and intensity - check time clocks.
• Stocking density.
• Beak trimming or spectacles - may be needed.
• Birds in large houses keep to specific areas, and don't range widely through the house.
• Social orders are set up within these territories, so although they are free to move, there are strict social limits on their mobility.
• Birds can recognise about 11 other birds and stay in that group to avoid being pecked when they move outside their territory.
• Studies showed that the area over which a bird ranges varies greatly between houses, some being much larger than others.
• Thus the notion of individual or personal space is more acceptable in birds on litter than that of territory and home range.
  

Battery cages

• Welfarists and the public in many countries are trying to ban the battery cage, and in some they have succeeded. Currently the RNZSPCA are working hard to ban them in New Zealand.
• Producers use the battery cages for a number of reasons:
• Birds can be fed a complete and balanced diet.
• It's easy to maintain total environmental control.
• Egg eating is less likely.
• Inspection of birds is easy.
• Catching birds is easy.
• Parasites and disease are easy to control - if the system is good.
• Birds bred for cages will have high egg production.
• The eggs will be clean and of high quality.
• These points carry little weight in the minds of welfarists as they see birds in cages almost denuded of feathers, fighting for space and unable to express the fifth freedom to express normal behaviour.
• To increase profits, the single cage soon became the multiple cage housing from 2-4 birds. Then the multiple cage got bigger and became a colony cage.
• Producers used to consider 460cm²/bird to be near an economic optimum but welfarists stressed that 500cm²/bird was better and if possible it should be raised to 600 cm2/bird.
• In New Zealand the height of all new cages installed after 1 January 1997 had to be at least 40cm over 65% of the cage floor area and not less than 35cm at any other point.
• Similarly the slope of the floor must not exceed 8 degrees for new cages after 1 January 1997.
  

Behaviour in cages

• There is great pressure on designers to improve the environment for the caged bird. The problem is that when space is increased and the bird allowed choices, the size of the cage has to be increased - with an associated rise in costs.
• Various designs have included a dark nest box and a lighted scratch area. A major problem with these more complex cages is that inspection of the birds is still difficult.
• Solid sides to the cage have helped to prevent feather pecking from birds in adjacent cages.
• Poor trough design, sharp edges and incorrect wire placement on the cage front cause feather wear on the throat. Horizontal bars are better than vertical bars as they allow greater feed access with less pecking.
• Correct trough depth is also important to prevent neck blisters.
• Sandpaper on the trough lip next to the bird will help ensure that claws are worn down and feet shape is improved.
• Injuries (up to 3.5%) can occur to birds such as getting their necks, wings, legs and combs caught between the bars, depending on cage design and manufacture.
• It's important for equipment designers to understand the difference between density and crowding- remembering a bird is most concerned about having adequate personal space around its head.
• Density is the number of birds/unit area or unit space, but crowding is a product of density, contact, communication and activity. Crowding contains psychological factors as well as physical ones.
• Cracked eggs can be a major problem on wire floors. Cracks occur when eggs hit the floor after being laid, and cage design is very much involved. Floor mass, the slope, height of egg drop (which varies with the size of the bird) and the angle the egg is presented from the cloaca are all involved.
• In cages, more cracked eggs occur on heavy gauge wire floors which birds prefer over finer gauge wire.
  

Feeding and drinking rhythms

• In caged birds living in 16 hours of daylight, three main periods of eating have been recorded.
• The two main ones are at the start and end of the light period, and the third one was less fixed. Most feed is eaten at the last period of the day.
• When kept in continuous light, birds also engaged in regular rhythmic bouts if they could detect any changes like temperature fluctuations or feeding times to allow patterns to be formed.
• Egg laying rhythm also helped birds to develop feeding rhythms.
• Social facilitation is important in hens and results in greater feed intake. Group-fed birds are calmer and more relaxed about eating. This behaviour is useful if all birds are producing well but triggering low producers to eat is counter productive and unprofitable.
• In free-range birds, scratching is also part of the eating ritual and a hungry hen scratches more than a satiated one.
• Running with food in the beak to avoid competitors is a regular habit of young chicks, but it's seen in free-range hens too.
• Water is vital for high producing birds. Egg number and size are affected within 48 hours of water being cut off.
• Drinking rhythm is closely related to feeding rhythm.
• Food and water are not taken in at night and intake of both peaks at the last feed bout before dark.
• Within a temperature range of 18 - 24°C, intakes of both are regular and stable. However in heat waves, water intake may increase by 50% in the afternoon when most water is taken.
• As pullets grow, they change their major water intake from morning to afternoon.
• A laying hen needs about 170ml water/day and maximum water intake is related more to body recovery after laying than to ovulation.
• When birds, especially pullets are moved to new quarters, some of their old familiar waterers should be moved with them until they learn to use the new ones.
  

Disclaimer:
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.