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

Simple Summary Laying hens may peck each other, painfully pulling out feathers and damaging flesh. There are many potential reasons and no obvious solutions, so the sharp tip of the beak is often carefully removed after hatching to limit the damage inflicted. Scientist have found it is useful to provide hens with lots of other things to forage in and peck at. Our study compared the effect of providing pans containing an abrasive material designed to attract pecking behaviour to eight treatment flocks of young hens, with eight flocks acting as controls. Each group had four beak-trimmed and four intact-beak flocks paired by farm. The pans significantly reduced the side and top beak lengths in samples of birds measured at 6-7 weeks and 10-11 weeks of age, and beak growth appeared to be linear. Thus, provision of abrasive material in pans effectively blunted beaks of younger birds. By the end of rear (14-15 weeks), birds seemed to lose interest in pecking at the pans, so there was no difference between treatment and control flocks, indicating scope for redesign to retain their interest. 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 eight treatment flocks from six weeks of age. Flocks (mean size 6843) comprised eight British Blacktail, six Lohmann Brown and two Bovans Brown. All young birds (6-7 weeks) pecked more frequently at the pecking pans (mean 40.4) than older pullets (mean 26.0, 23.3 pecks/bird/min at 10-11 weeks and 14-15 weeks, respectively) (p < 0.005). There was no effect on feather pecking or plumage cover. Mean side-beak length and mean top-beak lengths were shorter in treatment flocks at 6-7 weeks and 10-11 weeks (p < 0.001). Intact-beak treatment flocks had shorter mean side-beak length at 10-11 weeks (p < 0.001) and at 14-15 weeks (p < 0.05) and mean top-beak length at 6-7 weeks (p < 0.05) and at 10-11 weeks (p < 0.05). BT treatment flocks had shorter side-beak and top-beak lengths at 6-7 weeks and at 10-11 weeks (p < 0.001). Beak lengths showed linear growth, with individual bird variation indicating a potential for genetic selection. The study demonstrated that abrasive material can reduce beak length in pullets.