Providing perches and environmental enrichment in broiler houses significantly improves leg health, reduces aggression, and enables expression of natural behavior in commercial chicken production.
Broiler house enrichment has been shown to produce meaningful welfare improvements with modest investments. Chickens provided perches and elevated platforms show better leg health, stronger bones, and higher activity levels. Scattered grain and litter enrichment enables foraging behavior that is strongly motivated in chickens. The welfare benefits are measurable by multiple indicators — reduced lameness, improved bone integrity, lower corticosterone levels. Implementation requires investment and management attention, but the welfare returns per dollar spent make enrichment one of the most cost-effective broiler welfare interventions available.