Providing environmental enrichment for broiler chickens significantly improves welfare by enabling natural behaviours including foraging, perching, dustbathing, and social interaction.
Broiler chickens in barren environments express a restricted behavioural repertoire and show signs of chronic frustration. Providing substrate for dustbathing, objects for pecking, and structures for perching meets fundamental behavioural needs at relatively low cost. Evidence-based enrichment provision is increasingly required by higher welfare standards.