Which natural behaviors of laying hens welfare systems should prioritize, and how different housing systems compare in enabling behavioral expression.
Laying hen welfare evaluation is most meaningfully done by assessing which natural behaviors are expressed and in what proportion of time — a time-budget analysis of real behavioral activity provides more welfare information than housing system classification alone. Hens that dust bathe, forage, perch, and nest in appropriate facilities demonstrate positive welfare states that housing classification alone cannot guarantee. The welfare goal is not simply providing housing that theoretically permits behaviors, but ensuring management conditions under which hens actually perform them at natural frequencies. This framework reveals that a nominally cage-free system with inadequate litter depth, overcrowding, and poor lighting may provide worse welfare than a well-managed enriched cage despite the categorical superiority of cage-free status.