Poultry Lighting and Welfare | Animal Welfare Hub

Lighting conditions in poultry houses profoundly affect bird welfare, with appropriate light intensity, spectrum, and photoperiod essential for normal behaviour and health.

Key Facts

Chickens perceive a broader light spectrum than humans, including ultraviolet light used in social signalling.
Continuous lighting or very short dark periods in commercial houses disrupt sleep and immune function.
Low light intensity in commercial houses suppresses activity and contributes to leg weakness.
Providing windows or skylights giving access to daylight improves broiler activity levels and welfare.
The EU welfare directive for broilers recommends minimum 20 lux during lit periods and 6-hour dark periods.

Welfare Considerations

Lighting management is a powerful but underutilised lever for poultry welfare improvement. Birds in chronically dim, continuous, or spectrally impoverished environments show reduced activity, increased fearfulness, and higher rates of leg problems and pecking behaviours. Natural light access through windows, UV-enriched artificial light sources, and appropriate day-night cycles support normal circadian rhythms, immune function, and behaviour expression. Higher-welfare farming systems increasingly incorporate enhanced lighting standards.

What You Can Do

Support poultry farms and brands that provide natural light access or enhanced lighting standards.
Advocate for mandatory minimum lighting standards including UV enrichment in poultry welfare legislation.
Choose free-range or organic poultry products that include outdoor access and natural light.
Support research into optimal lighting environments for different poultry species and production systems.
Ask food retailers to disclose lighting standards at their poultry supplier farms.