Environmental enrichment for broilers improves welfare beyond the minimum requirements of many commercial systems. Understanding the evidence guides better enrichment provision in commercial flocks.
Broiler enrichment research consistently demonstrates that commercially produced chickens have motivations and preferences that current intensive production systems fail to meet. Perch use by broilers when available indicates that the drive to elevate is inherent and frustrated in floor-only rearing. The rapid loss of novelty from simple enrichment objects indicates that meaningful enrichment must be complex, varied and regularly renewed to maintain welfare benefit. Outdoor access for free-range broilers provides the qualitatively richest enrichment, with birds engaging in foraging, dust-bathing, exploration and social behaviours at far higher rates than indoor systems. The evidence supports enriched environments as genuinely improving broiler experience rather than merely changing observable behaviour.