Priorities in the cage size and flooring preferences of domestic hens
- 31 December 1980
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in British Poultry Science
- Vol. 22 (3), 255-263
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00071688108447884
Abstract
Battery-kept hens (Sykes Tints) showed a preference for a large (0.76 .times. 0.86 m) over a small (0.38 .times. 0.43 m) cage but preferred the smaller cage when this had a litter floor to the one 4 times larger with a wire floor. The hens still showed a preference for litter when they could obtain access to it only by entering an even smaller cage (0.38 .times. 0.215 m) in which they could hardly turn round. This cage gave far less space than that recommended by the UK Welfare Codes (1971). Increasing the space allowed to battery-kept hens may not be as valuable to them as giving them access to litter.This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Animal SufferingPublished by Springer Nature ,1980
- Welfare and the Structure of a Battery Cage : Size and Cage Floor Preferences in Domestic HensBritish Veterinary Journal, 1978
- The interpretation of preference tests in animal behaviourApplied Animal Ethology, 1978
- Sensory reinforcement and illumination preference in the domesticated pigAnimal Behaviour, 1977
- Preference decisions of domestic hens for wire or litter floorsApplied Animal Ethology, 1976
- Spatial Preference in the Domestic HenBritish Veterinary Journal, 1975
- The preference of domestic hens for different types of battery cage floorBritish Poultry Science, 1973