Scientific research on environmental enrichment for broiler and layer chickens reveals how simple additions to housing can profoundly improve welfare.
Conventional intensive poultry housing provides little opportunity for chickens to express natural behavioral repertoires, leading to chronic frustration and welfare harms including feather pecking and lameness. Decades of enrichment research has identified low-cost interventions including perches, dustbathing substrates, pecking objects, and foraging materials that substantially improve welfare without prohibitive costs. Higher welfare standards are increasingly reflected in consumer certification programs and corporate commitments.