Laying hens have strong instinctive needs for nesting, perching, and dust bathing. Meeting these needs is central to welfare in all commercial egg production systems.
Laying hen welfare science has established that nesting, perching, and dust bathing are not optional preferences but strong behavioural needs. Hens deprived of nesting opportunities show acute distress responses; those denied dust bathing materials perform the behaviour on bare substrate or in the air. These motivational states have welfare significance regardless of whether physical health is compromised. The transition from battery cages to cage-free systems has improved opportunities for these behaviours but introduced new challenges including keel bone fractures from perch falls and increased aggression in large groups. Progressive welfare improvement requires addressing both the old problems and the new ones that better systems have revealed.