Providing laying hens with environmental enrichment that enables natural behaviours including foraging, dustbathing, perching, and nesting is essential to their welfare in both conventional and alternative housing systems.
Enrichment provision for laying hens directly affects welfare across multiple dimensions. The motivation to perform natural behaviours — foraging through substrate, dustbathing in loose material, perching at night, and laying in a secluded nest — is so strong in hens that deprivation causes measurable frustration, stereotypic behaviour, and redirected aggression toward conspecifics. Feather pecking, a major welfare problem in commercial laying flocks, is strongly linked to insufficient enrichment and opportunity to perform natural behaviours. Effective enrichment goes beyond minimum regulatory requirements: varied foraging substrates including straw bales and hanging vegetation, adequate dustbathing areas with dry loose material, perch provision at appropriate heights for flight-landing, and sufficient nest boxes to prevent competition all contribute to positive welfare. In free-range systems, provision of range shelters and vegetation cover dramatically increases range use, which is associated with lower stress indicators and better physical condition. Enrichment that enables hens to make choices about their environment actively supports positive welfare states beyond mere absence of suffering.