Early training of hens: effects on the animal distribution in an aviary system

Space use and navigation ability of hens at housing in the aviary for the laying phase: effect of enrichment with additional perches and genotype

“…In other words, within 2 wk after housing, all animals used the aviary and the equipment of the outer wall for resting during the night. A short time for adaptation was also observed in a previous study using Brown hens ( Pillan et al, 2020 ), where the number of hens on the floor after turning off the light decreased within 15 d after housing. Then, in the present study, changes across the 4 wk in the use of the additional perches of the outer wall were in a quite narrow range, showing the highest value at 18 wk of age and the lowest one at 20 wk of age (1.91 vs. 1.39% of hens per pen; P < 0.001) ( Table 1 ).…”

Factors affecting space use by laying hens in a cage-free aviary system: effect of nest lighting at pullet housing and of curtain nest color during laying

“…Thus, the use of the nests was likely promoted by the low-intensity nest lighting during the first weeks at housing and at the start of laying, which increased the proportion of eggs laid in the nests at the start of oviposition (wk 21–26 of age; Pillan et al, 2020 ) and, according to the present study, later during the following laying period when nest lighting was switched off in all nests to provide hens with a suitable place for laying.…”

“…From 17 to 26 wk of age, the collection of data was addressed to evaluate the distribution of animals in the aviary as published by Pillan et al (2020) . From 28 to 45 wk of age, the numbers of total eggs, dirty and broken eggs were counted 3 d/wk.…”

Measuring Comfort Behaviours in Laying Hens Using Deep-Learning Tools

“…A total of 1800 Lohmann Brown-Classic hens (Lohmann Tierzucht GmbH, Cuxhaven, Germany), aged 17 weeks, were housed at the experimental farm "Lucio Toniolo" of the University of Padova (Legnaro, Padova, Italy) and were randomly divided into 8 pens in an experimental aviary system (225 hens per pen; 9 hens/m 2 stocking density), where they were monitored until 45 weeks of age within a specific research project [28].…”