Enrichment for broilers and laying hens — including perches, pecking blocks, and straw bales — reduces harmful behaviours and improves welfare in commercial flocks.
Poultry enrichment research has demonstrated that relatively simple, low-cost interventions can meaningfully improve welfare in commercial flocks. Straw bales provide substrate for pecking and scratching while also serving as elevated resting platforms. Pecking blocks redirect injurious pecking to appropriate targets. Perches provide height options that reduce competition and allow more natural resting behaviour. The challenge is that the welfare benefit of enrichment depends on animals being in a state where they can use it — excessively lame or ill birds cannot benefit from enrichment. Enrichment and good management are complementary, not substitutes for each other.