Providing meaningful environmental enrichment to laying hens significantly improves welfare and reduces problem behaviours.
Laying hens have sophisticated behavioural needs shaped by millions of years of evolution. When these needs cannot be expressed — through space restriction, lack of substrate, or absence of objects to investigate — hens redirect behaviours onto each other with damaging consequences. Enrichment is not a luxury: it is a welfare necessity. The most welfare-positive enriched systems allow full expression of foraging, dustbathing, and social behaviours.