Lighting management in commercial chicken farming significantly affects welfare through impacts on behavior, health, activity patterns, and sleep quality.
Lighting is an underappreciated welfare variable in commercial poultry farming. Historically, near-continuous lighting was used to maximize feed intake and growth rate, with no consideration of sleep needs or behavioral effects. Research demonstrating that chickens have genuine sleep requirements and behavioral responses to light quality has driven regulatory change. The EU requirement for minimum dark periods is an important welfare advance, but optimal lighting for poultry welfare is more complex than minimum dark periods - spectrum, intensity, and transition management all affect behavioral welfare.