Hunniford, M. E., Widowski, T. M. 2018. Curtained nests facilitate settled nesting behaviour of laying hens in furnished cages. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 202, 39-45.

Egg location can be used to determine the nests that hens prefer, but it does not indicate whether the design of that nest satisfies a hen’s nesting motivation. Hens that are satisfied with the nest resources exhibit characteristic settled nesting behaviour including less activity and longer sitting phases during the hour pre-lay. The current experiment compared the nesting behaviour of hens housed in large furnished cages given two surfaces either enclosed with plastic curtains or open. We hypothesized that hens with curtained nests would be more settled in their pre-laying behaviour than hens only provided with plastic nest surfaces. Furthermore, we hypothesized nest-naïve hens would benefit from having an enclosed nest added, demonstrating more settled nesting behaviour. After being conventionally reared, 996 pullets were placed in 24 furnished cages at week 15 (large: 41,296 cm2; small: 20,880 cm2). Each FC had two nests, one with a plastic mesh surface and one with a smooth plastic surface (3368 cm2). Half of the FC had both nest surfaces enclosed with plastic red curtains (ENCL, n = 12) and half had two open surfaces (OPEN, n = 12). All FC were subsequently modified at week 28 to have one enclosed and one open surface. Egg location was recorded from the first egg to week 36. Focal hens were marked at week 20 and observed from week 22–24 and 31–33. Oviposition times were recorded during week 21, 27, 30, 36. Scan samples of sitting and aggressive behaviour were conducted during weeks 25–26 and 34–35. Hens with two curtained nests were less active (P = 0.0219), less aggressive (P = 0.0055), displaced less (P = 0.0269), and sat more (P < 0.0001) than hens with two OPEN nest surfaces. When hens from OPEN FCs were subsequently given an enclosed nest, the percentage of hens sitting increased (P < 0.0001) and the proportion of time spent active decreased (P = 0.02). Therefore, nest areas enclosed with simple plastic curtains facilitate the expression of more settled nesting behaviour, even for hens that had laid for three months without access to enclosed sites.