Feather pecking is a damaging behaviour in poultry causing significant welfare harm to victim birds, with root causes in housing, nutrition and flock management rather than individual bird aggression.
Feather pecking welfare is both acute and chronic - victim birds experience pain from wounds and progressive feather loss that impairs thermoregulation. In severe cases, birds are pecked to death by flockmates. Controlling feather pecking without addressing root causes (through beak trimming or lighting manipulation alone) masks the problem without solving it. Root cause management requires assessing diet adequacy, providing enrichment that redirects pecking motivation to appropriate substrates, managing light levels and litter quality, and monitoring flocks closely during known high-risk periods (housing change, dietary transition, approach to point of lay). Welfare-positive feather pecking prevention is management-intensive but achievable and is more reliably effective than beak trimming.