Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T23:26:43.039Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Behavioural Time-Budgets and Beak Related Behaviour in Floor-Housed Turkeys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

B O Hughes  and
P N Grigor
B O Hughes*
Affiliation:
Roslin Institute (Edinburgh), Roslin, Midlothian, EH25 9PS, UK
P N Grigor
Affiliation:
Roslin Institute (Edinburgh), Roslin, Midlothian, EH25 9PS, UK Present address: Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB9 2QJ, UK
*
† Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The behavioural time budget of 140 turkey poults housed on litter in groups of 10-11 in small pens was recorded by individual scan sampling from 1-day-old to 12-weeks-old. Over this time period some behaviour (sitting/sleeping) remained relatively constant, some (feeding) declined and remained low, some (standing/walking, drinking) declined and rose again, while some (environmental pecking, bird pecking, preening) rose and then declined. By 12 weeks the incidence of some behaviours appeared to have stabilized, though others were still changing. A substantial proportion of their activity could be categorized as beak-related behaviour. Feather pecking and cannibalism are major behavioural and welfare problems in intensively-housed turkeys; it is postulated that one reason for this may be because a major proportion of their beak-related behaviour is strongly directed towards plumage, either their own or that of other birds, rather than towards food or environmental stimuli. One possible solution may be to seek ways of increasing the proportion of time they spend feeding.

Keywords

animal welfarecannibalismpecking behaviourtime-budgetingturkeys
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , May 1996 , pp. 189 - 198
Copyright
© 1996 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

References

Anon 1995 Primary breeders up-date delegates at Orlando. Turkeys 43(1): 3–6Google Scholar
Appleby, M C, Hogarth, G S and Hughes, B O 1989 Behaviour of laying hens in a deep litter house. British Poultry Science 30: 545–553CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appleby, M C, Hughes, B O and Elson, H A 1992 Poultry Production Systems: Behaviour, Management and Welfare. CAB International: Wallingford, UKGoogle Scholar
Blokhuis, H J 1986 Feather pecking in poultry: its relation with ground pecking. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 16: 63–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blokhuis, H J and Arkes, J G 1982 Some observations on the development of feather pecking in poultry. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 12: 145–157CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blokhuis, H J and van der Haar, J W 1990 The effect of the stocking density on the behaviour of broilers. Archiv für Geflügelkunde 54: 74–77Google Scholar
Farm Animal Welfare Council 1995 Report on the Welfare of Turkeys. Farm Animal Welfare Council: Surbiton, UKGoogle Scholar
Gibson, S W, Dun, P and Hughes, B O 1988 The performance and behaviour of laying fowls in a covered strawyard system. Research and Development in Agriculture 5: 153–163Google Scholar
Grigor, P N, Hughes, B O and Gentle, M J 1995 An experimental investigation of the costs and benefits of beak trimming in turkeys. Veterinary Record 136: 257–265CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hale, E B and Schein, M W 1962 The behaviour of turkeys. In: Hafez, ESE (ed) The Behaviour of Domestic Animals pp 531–564. Balliere, Tindall and Cox: London, UKGoogle Scholar
Hocking, P 1993 Welfare of turkeys. In: Savory, C J and Hughes, B O (eds) Proceedings of the Fourth European Symposium on Poultry Welfare pp 125–138. Universities Federation for Animal Welfare: Potters Bar, UKGoogle Scholar
Hughes, B O and Black, A J 1974 The effect of environmental factors on activity, selected behaviour patterns and “fear” of fowls in cages and pens. British Poultry Science 15: 375–380CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, B O and Duncan, I J H 1972 The influence of strain and environmental factors upon feather pecking and cannibalism in fowls. British Poultry Science 13: 525–547CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lind, H 1957 The activation of an instinct caused by a ‘transitional action’. Behaviour 14: 123–135CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sainsbury, D 1992 Poultry Health and Management, 3rd edition. Blackwell Scientific Publications: Oxford, UKGoogle Scholar
Savory, C J 1982 Effects of broiler companions on early performance of turkeys. British Poultry Science 23: 81–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savory, C J and Maros, K 1993 Influence of degree of food restriction, age and time of day on behaviour of broiler breeder chickens. Behavioural Processes 29: 179–190CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skoglund, W C and Palmer, D H 1961 Light intensity studies with broilers. Poultry Science 40: 1458Google Scholar