Broiler chickens are often perceived as too food-focused to have significant behavioral needs, but research shows they actively use enrichment and benefit measurably from environmental complexity.
The assumption that broiler chickens are too modified by selective breeding to have meaningful behavioral needs is contradicted by research showing they actively use and benefit from enrichment. A broiler that uses a dustbathing substrate, pecks at enrichment objects, or perches is expressing behavioral motivations that were not eliminated by selection for fast growth. These behaviors matter to the birds, as evidenced by their persistence and by the behavioral frustration signs (sham dustbathing, increased aggression) seen in deprived environments. Enrichment provision is therefore a meaningful welfare intervention even in intensive broiler systems, and becomes more impactful when combined with slower-growing genetics that give birds the mobility to actually access and use environmental resources.