Lighting management in poultry housing significantly affects chicken behavior, health, and welfare, with evidence-based standards emerging for intensity, spectrum, and photoperiod.
Chicken lighting welfare is a technically complex area where industry, welfare, and production interests intersect. The discovery that chickens perceive UV light has prompted research into UV-supplemented lighting that improves peck discrimination and reduces feather pecking through improved visual environment quality. The photoperiod debate — how long light periods should last — involves tradeoffs between growth rate, activity, and welfare that different production systems resolve differently. Consumer and retailer pressure for welfare-labeled poultry has begun driving lighting standard improvements in premium production segments.