Dust bathing is one of the most strongly motivated natural behaviours in hens. Its suppression in conventional cage systems is a major welfare deficit that has driven regulatory reform.
Dust bathing is one of the clearest examples of a behavioural need in farmed animals: hens will perform dust bathing movements even on wire floors where no substrate exists — a vacuum behaviour that is a reliable indicator of frustration of a strongly motivated drive. The welfare case for providing adequate dust bathing substrate is therefore among the most evidence-based in poultry science. Yet providing good dust bathing conditions is difficult in commercial systems: litter quality must be maintained, space per bird must be adequate to allow the full behavioural sequence, and access must not be monopolised by dominant individuals. Free-range and organic systems generally provide better dust bathing opportunities than caged or barn systems, though litter quality management remains variable even in higher-welfare systems.