Journal article
Ranging behaviour of commercial free-range broiler chickens 1: Factors related to flock variability
PS Taylor, PH Hemsworth, PJ Groves, SG Gebhardt-Henrich, JL Rault
Animals | MDPI AG | Published : 2017
DOI: 10.3390/ani7070054
Open access
Abstract
Free-range chicken meat consumption has increased. However, little is known about how meat chickens use the outdoor range. Understanding ranging behaviour could help improve management and shed and range design to ensure optimal ranging opportunities. We tracked 1200 individual broiler chickens in four mixed sex flocks on one commercial farm across two seasons. More chickens accessed the range in summer than winter. Chickens that accessed the range in winter did so less frequently and for a shorter period of time daily than chickens ranging in summer. The number of chickens ranging and the frequency and duration of range visits increased over the first two weeks of range access and stabilise..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This work was partly funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), Chicken Meat. The authors would like to thank industry participants and staff and students from the Animal Welfare Science Centre for their help with the experimental work, Michael Toscano from the Research Centre for Proper Housing: Poultry and Rabbits (ZTHZ), Division of Animal Welfare, University of Bern, Switzerland, for his assistance with RFID equipment, and Gabriela Munhoz Morello for developing a macro to aid data analysis.