How any hen can have beautiful plumage all year round

Scientists at the University of Bristol together with the RSPCA and Soil Association have put together a new guide to help make sure laying hens are well-feathered throughout their lives.
The four-page booklet, agreed with the poultry industry, covers the causes of feather loss, through best practice for keeping free-range, barn and organic hens with good feather cover, to managing a feather loss problem.

Hens mainly lose feathers through other birds pecking at them: an abnormal redirected foraging behaviour. The most common reasons for this are poor litter quality and limited foraging opportunities.

The guide, produced by AssureWel*, includes up to date information from the Bristol Pecking Project and advises making any changes in their diet, housing or environment gradually. It also points out that the most successful proven strategy is using as many management strategies together as possible.

Alice Clark, RSPCA senior scientific officer for farm animals, said:  “We are so pleased to be part of such a positive, collaborative effort to help find solutions to this key welfare issue affecting laying hens.”

British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) spokesman, Mark Williams, said: "BEIC is fully supportive of this guide which will help in assisting producers to implement measures that can help prevent injurious feather pecking, provided it forms part of the overall professional advice available to producers.”

The guide encourages strategies such as the use of enrichment to help keep hens interested, increasing opportunities for foraging, and maintaining good quality litter. The importance of as seamless as possible a transition from the rearing to laying house is also stressed.   

The booklet is being sent out in the next edition of The Ranger, the magazine of the British Free Range Egg Association, and can be found on the website of AssureWel and the RSPCA.

A further more detailed advice guide will be available shortly from the University of Bristol.