Behavior of the domestic fowl in the presence of vertical panels

The effects of environmental complexity on the time budget of chickens were investigated. It was hypothesized that the provision of vertical panels to pen centers would generate additional protective areas within the pen, inf luencing the amount of time spent performing different behaviors. The exper iment consisted of three cover treatments (mesh panels, frame panels, and n o cover) and two group sizes (80 and 110). Vertical panels, constructed of polyvinyl chloride piping, were positioned in pen centers, whereas pen cent ers in the no-cover treatment were left empty. Drinking, dust bathing, feed ing, foraging, movement, preening, resting, and standing were recorded duri ng continuous focal sampling of 210 focal individuals from 5 to 44 d of age . Resting was the most frequent behavior accounting for over 64% of the chi cken time budget. Resting time was influenced by the presence of cover (P < 0.01), and was higher in pens enriched with panels. Time spent moving and standing in the different pen regions was influenced by the presence of cov er (P < 0.01) and age (P < 0.05). The presence of cover did not influence t ime spent feeding or drinking, but both behaviors were affected by age (P < 0.05). The presence of cover influenced time spent foraging, which occurre d more often in the pens containing no panels (P = 0.05). Preening and dust bathing were the only behaviors influenced by group size (P < 0.05). These results suggest that incorporating enrichment into the environment does in fluence the time a chicken will spend performing different behaviors.