The Impacts of Stocking Density on Behavior of Pullets Reared in Cage-free Housing Systems

There is a clear need for more research detailing how to manage birds in cage-free housing systems. Although management guides for birds in cage-free systems focus on adult hens, previous research has established that the pullet phase is important to success later in life. Past research regarding the effects of stocking density on behavior has focused on caged adult hens, and often deals with confounding factors such as group size, limiting its interpretation. The goal of this project was to investigate the impacts of stocking density on behaviors of pullets in cage-free housing systems. 

A 2x2 randomized complete block design with two strains (Lohmann LB-Lite (Brown) and Lohmann LSL-Lite (White)) and two stocking densities (619.1 (high stocking density; HSD) and 1,248.9 (low stocking density, LSD) cm2/bird) was utilized. Videos of 6 pens for each strain by stocking density combination (59 birds/pen, n = 1416) were recorded for 2 consecutive days at 12 and 16 weeks of age (WOA). Behaviors of interest were recorded every 10 minutes for 1 hour in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Most behavior data were analyzed using a mixed model, PROC GLIMMIX, in SAS 9.4 with main effects of stocking density (SD), strain, age and time of day (TOD). Behaviors that were infrequent or that could not be transformed to meet normality assumptions were analyzed as binomial data (occurred or did not occur) and odds ratios were calculated using PROC LOGISTIC.

Stocking density influenced every behavior examined. The LSD had fewer birds that performed eating and drinking behaviors, but more birds performed inactive, locomotion, exploratory and comfort behaviors compared to the HSD. Additionally, birds in the HSD were more likely to participate in pecking and piling behaviors compared to LSD. These results suggest that LSD may provide welfare benefits to the pullets. However, producers may face economic barriers when attempting to decrease stocking densities. Further research is needed in this area, but these results could help to achieve a stocking density that maximizes the range of behaviors pullets are able to perform within the scope of a producer’s resources. Future directions may consider collecting behavior data across the life cycle in addition to examining the relationships among behavior and welfare parameters such as feather quality, foot condition and keel bone fractures.