The extent to which birds range could be a vital key to the causes of pecking, according to new research. The risk of pecking was reduced nine fold in flocks that ranged best in the study by researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Warwick. Two other factors highlighted by the scientists are keeping birds off litter during nestbox training and feed.
The researchers, led by Bristol’s Dr Christine Nicol, studied more than 100 free range flocks across Britain. Personal interviews were carried out with the flock manager and the flock, the shed and the range were all surveyed. All the birds involved were beak trimmed.
The researchers stayed in touch with each farm to identify those in which pecking developed. Any flock in which feather damaged amounted to more than two per cent was recorded as a pecking ‘case’. Each of these was matched with a control flock which had no pecking. Full details were finally recorded on 50 pairs of flocks.
“Feather pecking was strongly associated with range use of less than twenty per cent of hens in a flock on sunny days,” says the research team. “Experimental work has demonstrated the importance of access to a suitable substrate as a protection against feather pecking and increased pecking opportunities afforded by the range may be the prime reason for this result. However lower range use will also result in higher average stocking density within the house, a factor that has been associated with increased pecking.
“One possible reason that birds went outdoors was the presence of trees and bushes on the range,” the report goes on, “but further work is required to identify the factors producing greater range use.”
In general, say the scientists, pecking was associated with specific management practices rather than overall management patterns. One of these was restricting access to litter to encourage the birds to use the nestboxes.
“There is tension between allowing birds adequate access to litter and outside range areas, and management practices that are designed to minimise egg loss or feed wastage,” says the report. “This work suggests that birds should be encouraged to use nest sites using methods other than physical restriction from litter areas, but other methods of encouraging nest usage can also present risks. The use of light in nest boxes is a risk factor for vent pecking. Perhaps alternative pecking opportunities should be considered when birds are confined to slatted areas for part of the time.”
In the study feed was associated with pecking in more than one way. “Most farms fed mash but this was supplied by a number of different companies,” says the report. “The feed of one company was associated with an increased risk of pecking and the feed of a second company with a decreased risk. Although there is no evidence that dietary protein source is associated with pecking differences, particle size, or consistency of feed between batches, may be important.”
The scientists say they need to understand more not just about the behavior of hens but also of free range farmers. “We need to know more about farmers’ attitudes towards encouraging birds to use the range,” they say. “Some farmers were reluctant to try and increase range use when this was suggested, although they were receptive to the idea of other management changes.”
