Commercial chickens have complex behavioral repertoires including dust bathing, perching, foraging, and social organization — enriched environments that allow expression of these behaviors improve welfare significantly.
Chickens are curious, active birds whose natural behavioral repertoire includes hours of foraging, social interaction, dust bathing, and exploration. Commercial housing conditions that provide bare, featureless floors deny all of these behaviors, creating chronic behavioral frustration. The argument that broilers are too debilitated by their genetics to use enrichment is contradicted by research showing measurable behavioral engagement when enrichment is provided. Even in fast-growing breeds in intensive housing, simple enrichment additions produce welfare benefits. The challenge is scaling enrichment provision to meet the behavioral needs of 70 billion chickens annually — a target that requires both regulation and industry commitment.