Farmed Poultry Enrichment: Perches, Litter, and Natural Behavior

Providing perches, foraging litter, and environmental complexity to commercial poultry significantly improves welfare by allowing expression of natural behaviors.

Key Facts

Broiler chickens given straw bales spend significantly more time perching and pecking
Foraging litter allows chickens to express strongly motivated scratching and pecking behavior
Providing perches to broilers reduces footpad dermatitis and improves leg health
Dust bathing is a highly motivated behavior that requires loose particulate substrate
Environmental complexity reduces injurious pecking and aggression in laying hens
The EU Broilers Directive requires minimum enrichment including litter, natural light, and drinker space

Welfare Considerations

Enrichment for commercial poultry is not a luxury but a welfare necessity for animals with strong behavioral drives for foraging, perching, and dust bathing. Studies consistently show that chickens and turkeys given environmental complexity use it extensively, indicating high behavioral motivation. Enriched environments reduce boredom-related aggression, improve physical health through more diverse movement, and enable positive welfare states. The cost of basic enrichment - straw bales, perches, better litter management - is modest relative to the welfare benefit achieved.

What You Can Do

Choose poultry products certified under schemes requiring environmental enrichment
Support the European Chicken Commitment and equivalent pledges requiring enriched housing
Reduce poultry consumption or shift to certified higher-welfare products
Advocate for enrichment requirements to be included in poultry farming regulations globally