Broiler breeder hens and roosters suffer chronic hunger from feed restriction designed to prevent obesity-related reproductive failure. This is one of the least visible welfare problems in poultry production.
The welfare of broiler parent birds is largely invisible to consumers, who are unaware that the chickens producing the fertile eggs for broiler production experience chronic hunger throughout their productive lives. This hunger is welfare-significant — persistent foraging motivation, oral stereotypies, and the behavioural signs of frustration in food-restricted birds indicate genuine negative welfare states. The management dilemma is real: unrestricted feeding causes fatal health problems from extreme weight gain. The welfare-positive path involves developing slower-growing breeds that need less severe restriction, and using qualitative restriction (feeding lower-energy, higher-fibre diets) rather than severe quantitative restriction.