Chickens like treats, and those treats can be leftover garden scraps
If you’ve been to the grocery store lately you’ve probably seen the neat, plastic-wrapped packages of chicken meat or eggs, with a picture of a wholesome farming family on top, holding one or more chickens. The farmers are smiling, and even the chicken seems to be enjoying itself.
These types of marketing messages are becoming more and more common for farmers — big and small. Images like these tell the consumer that this farm’s chickens are happy, loved and cared for throughout their lifespan, so they can rest easy knowing that this bird has had a good life.
But what is happiness to a bird? Imagine you’re a chicken, living out your days scratching, pecking, drinking, eating, clucking, and (if you’re a hen) laying eggs. At what point, if a chicken could talk, would it say: “This was the best day ever.”
The question becomes: What constitutes a good life for a chicken, and how can you quantify the happiness factor you are providing your birds? And more to the point, why should you care about providing an emotionally positive environment for your chickens?
Across Canada, farming practices are evolving that consider the happiness factor of a chicken. This is not an altogether altruistic concept; whether your birds will be part of your farm life for only a few months or for several years, happy birds also tend to be productive birds, and farm practices in general have been trending towards ensuring a high quality of life for livestock.
The National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) Code of Practice for poultry provides guidance on how to sustainably farm poultry for meat or eggs, while simultaneously preserving a higher quality of life for the chicken. A sample “Bird Welfare Policy” is included in the NFACC code of practice, and outlines a farmer’s commitment to their animals: “[Our company/farm] is committed to responsible farm animal care and handling. That means animals in our care deserve to be healthy, safe and well cared for.”
In essence, they are committed to ensuring a happy life for their birds. But how do you measure how happy a chicken is? We don’t speak chicken, and while it may seem at a glance like there’s not a whole lot going on in a chicken’s head, the truth is that chickens are capable of complex behaviours and feel the pain and discomfort from illness injury and poor conditions just as abjectly as any animal.
One organization in the UK is attempting to quantify that happiness factor: The Welfare Quality Assessment protocol for poultry was created by the Welfare Quality Network and provides a certification standard similar in some ways to organic certifications. The Welfare Quality Assessment Protocol suggests that animals’ happiness can be measured, and provides a framework for analyzing the emotions a chicken might have in response to certain welfare conditions.
For example, one of the principles of the protocol is that poultry feel good, and the criteria
Your birds’ happiness factor is fairly common sense — chickens are like any other type of animal, from ducks to pigs to humans – they do better when they live a varied, physically healthy and stress-free life
analyzed to determine if this principle exists is absence of prolonged hunger or thirst. The measurement takes place at the slaughterhouse with evaluation of the carcass. Similarly, good housing is another principle that’s evaluated as part of the protocol, with the criteria being ease of movement, thermal comfort and comfortable resting space. The measurement involves an analysis of the litter quality in the housing, stocking density, evaluation of poultry behaviours for panting, huddling etc. and overall cleanliness of the bird.
Not surprisingly, it seems that based on the Welfare Quality Assessment Protocol, increasing your birds’ happiness factor is fairly common sense — chickens are like any other type of mammal, from pigs to cattle to humans – they do better when they live a varied, physically healthy and stress-free life.
Perhaps the key to ensuring happy chickens lies in how you look at them. Think of your chicken coop like boarding school — what would you want your children to have if they were sent away to school? Lots of fresh air and sunlight, room to move around, a varied curriculum, friends.
It’s not rocket science, after all.
Increasing the happiness factor in your chicken coop
- Chickens need friends — even if their best friend is you
Chickens prefer to be among their own kind, but in a pinch a hen will cozy up to just about any other animal, or human, too. Chickens have been known to bond with cats, dogs, calves, goats, ducks (even humans), and they seem to need that bonding and interaction in order to be satisfied with their chicken lot in life.
2. Fresh air and sunlight — the big two
Would you want to stay inside all day breathing stale air permeated with ammonia and other by-products of manure decomposition? Most likely your birds aren’t interested in that, either. Ensuring your birds have access to fresh air and sunlight can go a long way in giving them a chance at a happy life.
3. Chickens like treats, too
Imagine if all you ate every day was the same diet, day in and day out? Don’t be fooled by the whole ‘Animals don’t care if they eat the same thing every day’ argument. Proof that this isn’t true is the speed in which any livestock will move when they see the treat bucket in your hands. After pigs, chickens are the next best way of getting rid of gardens scraps and leftovers (other than those containing poultry). These treats will be like crack to your hens or broilers.
4. Get to know their personalities
Each of your birds will have their own quirky chicken-personality, and it pays to get to know them so they aren’t just nameless, faceless birds. After all, if you’re raising layers, these birds will be part of your life for a few years, so putting a name to a chicken face will go far in impacting how you treat them.
5. Give them space
Just like people, poultry fare better when they have lots of space. When contained in a coop, more space will mean less pecking and bullying, and healthier birds overall. Make sure you have enough nesting boxes so everyone can have their turn, but don’t be surprised if all your hens prefer to use one box, sometimes three at a time. This gives them something to fight about, which leads naturally to point number six!
6. Keep them busy — chickens get bored too
Bored hens will start pecking each other which can be problematic. You can keep your birds happy and occupied quickly and easily by periodically throwing a bale of straw into the coop for them to tear apart, or by hanging something from the middle of the coop for them to peck. Be creative; chickens love to explore new additions to their coop.