Environmental enrichment for farmed poultry significantly improves welfare outcomes by allowing natural behaviors like foraging, dustbathing, perching and exploration.
Enrichment for poultry is not a luxury but a welfare necessity. Chickens and turkeys are motivated to perform specific behaviors — foraging, dustbathing, perching, exploring — and when prevented from doing so they show frustration, redirected aggression and stress responses. The evidence base for effective enrichment in poultry is strong, and many enrichments are low-cost relative to the welfare benefit they provide. The challenge is that enrichment adds complexity to management and can affect production metrics if poorly implemented. Investment in training and facility improvement yields welfare gains at modest cost.