EFFECTS OF REARING EXPERIENCE AND STIMULUS ENRICHMENT ON FEATHER DAMAGE IN LAYING HENS

An experiment was conducted to determine whether feather damage in lay ing hens could be reduced by providing access to sand and peat for dus tbathing during rearing, and by giving straw for environmental enrichm ent during the laying period. For this purpose 1280 White Leghorns wer e used. Half of the chicks were reared conventionally on straw (-R), w hile the other half were reared on a substrate consisting of sand and fine dry peat (+R). In addition they were given straw after 14 days of life. From 18 weeks of age the birds were kept in 16 groups of 80 hen s each in an alternative egg production system (The Hans Kier System). Eight groups were formed from each rearing treatment and four of the groups from each treatment were given access to cut straw from a perfo rated plastic basket (+S), while the other four groups had no such sup plementing stimulus (-S). During the laying period the plumage was sco red at 28, 45, 59 and 72 weeks of age. Overall, there were significant beneficial effects of both the rearing and straw treatments. However, deterioration of the plumage increased with age in all groups. It was most severe in the -R-S (control) groups, while both the +R and the S treatments as well as their combination (+R+S) significantly reduced the deterioration at 28 weeks of age (P < 0.001 ). At 45 weeks of age there was still significantly less deterioration in the +R+S (P < 0.0 01) and the +S (P < 0.05) groups compared with the control groups. The reafter, the pattern was somewhat obscured because the birds with the most damaged plumage showed regrowth of new feathers. It is concluded that rearing with access to sand and peat for dustbathing reduces the later tendency to feather peck, and that environmental enrichment in t he laying environment by means of cut straw from a basket has a simila r additional effect.