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The causes and development of vent pecking are multifarious. Risk factors that have been identified as increasing vent pecking include dim lights placed in nest boxes to encourage hens to use the boxes, the diet being changed more than three times during the egg laying period, the use of bell drinkers, and the hens beginning to lay earlier than 20 weeks of age. [2]
Removing eggs each day, out of the sight of the hens, helps avoid broodiness not only in domestic poultry but also in some wild species in captivity. This continued egg laying means more eggs are laid than would occur under natural conditions. [9] [10] Poultry farming in battery cages also helps to avoid broodiness. [11] [12] [13]
Another study found that brown-egg laying hens are more likely to engage in feather pecking than white-egg laying hens. [1] The genetics of poultry will not guarantee a bird will engage in cannibalism, but the genes a bird possesses play a part in the degree of aggressiveness a bird could engage in feather pecking and increases their risk ...
More than 40% of the nation's roughly 300 million egg-laying hens are raised in cage-free facilities, but roughly 60% of "bird flu" cases recently detected involved cage-free farms.
Broody hens can stay on their eggs for a full week, only leaving maybe once a day to eat, drink, and go to the bathroom. The real issue comes when their owner has to decide if they want her to ...
The RSPCA "Welfare standards for laying hens and pullets" indicates that the stocking rate must not exceed 1,000 birds per hectare (10 m 2 per hen) of range available and a minimum area of overhead shade/shelter of 8 m 2 per 1,000 hens must be provided. Free-range farming of egg-laying hens is increasing its share of the market.
The theory gained steam on Facebook, TikTok and Twitter in recent weeks, with some users reporting that their hens stopped laying eggs and speculating that common chicken feed products were the cause.
Laying hens often are euthanized when reaching 100 to 130 weeks of age, when their egg productivity starts to decline. [120] Due to modern selective breeding, laying hen strains differ from meat production strains. As male birds of the laying strain do not lay eggs and are not suitable for meat production, they generally are killed soon after ...