Foraging is one of the most time-consuming and motivationally significant behaviors for laying hens. Providing opportunities for foraging dramatically improves welfare in both indoor and outdoor systems.
Foraging is not a behavioral luxury for hens — it is a core behavioral drive that occupies the majority of their waking hours in natural settings. Depriving hens of foraging opportunity, as battery cages do entirely, creates a state of chronic behavioral frustration that is a fundamental welfare harm. The transition to cage-free and enriched housing systems allows expression of foraging behavior, but the quality of foraging opportunity varies enormously depending on litter quality, space, and substrate provision. Systems that provide appropriate litter and outdoor access deliver the richest foraging environments, while barren cage-free systems with inadequate litter may meet regulatory requirements without meaningfully addressing the behavioral need. Foraging quality should be a component of welfare auditing in all laying hen systems.