Nesting and dust bathing by hens in cages: Matching and mis‐matching between behaviour and environment
| Autor: | S. F. Smith, B. O. Hughes, Michael C. Appleby |
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| Rok vydání: | 1993 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | British Poultry Science. 34:21-33 |
| ISSN: | 1466-1799 0007-1668 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/00071669308417559 |
| Popis: | 1. Medium hybrid hens were housed as groups of 4 at 18 weeks of age in cages of 4 different types: control battery cages allowing 675 cm2/bird; similar cages with a rear‐mounted dust bath, 290×345×240 mm, containing sand (D); cages with a rear‐mounted nest box of the same size, containing wood shavings (N); cages with both (DN). In half the experimental cages access to nests was restricted to the morning and access to baths was restricted to the afternoon, by automatic sliding doors. 2. During the first 24 weeks of lay about 95% of eggs were laid in nest boxes in treatments N and DN. Slightly fewer were laid in boxes where doors were present. Over 90% were laid in dust baths in D cages without doors and 67% with doors, which birds learned to open. Prelaying behaviour was least disturbed in nest boxes, most disturbed on the floor and intermediate in dust baths. 3. Fully developed dust bathing occurred in D and DN as bouts lasting 5 to 10 minutes; its incidence, surprisingly, was greater when doors... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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