Natural or spectrum-appropriate lighting in poultry houses has significant welfare benefits - light quality, intensity, and day length all affect chicken health and behaviour.
Lighting quality for poultry is a welfare factor that received insufficient attention until recently. Chickens evolved in environments with full-spectrum sunlight including UV components; standard commercial fluorescent or LED lighting without UV components is functionally impoverished for chickens. UV provision enables better social communication, navigation, and foraging. Combined with adequate darkness periods and appropriate day length management, full-spectrum lighting improves welfare indicators across multiple domains. The cost of UV-enhanced lighting is relatively low relative to the welfare benefit, making this an achievable improvement across industry.