PHOTO: ANNE VAN DEN OEVER
PHOTO: ANNE VAN DEN OEVER
▶▶▶ Wooden nest
At first glance the nests don’t differ much, but the left nestbox is made of plas- tic and one on the right, wood.
Based on the assumption that a hen doesn’t have a prefer- ence, every nest design in the study should account for 25% of the eggs laid. Taking into account the unattractive ventilat- ed (drafty) nest, 33% per nest type would still be expected. But these average statistics can only be applied if we were to see hens as egg laying machines. Van den Oever: “And they are far from that, they are very picky indeed. From our study we could conclude that there is a strong preference among broiler breeder hens for wooden nests rather than plastic nests. No less than 70% of the eggs ended up in the wooden nest and we saw more settled nesting behaviour in the wooden nests, too.” Only 15% of the hens chose the plastic control nest, 10% the nest with the partition and 5% the ven- tilator nest. With only 1 in 4 nests being wooden, the hens’ preference led to crowding, causing piling and aggressive be- haviour in the wooden nest. However, this preference was so
In this study four nest box designs were offered in a rela- tive preference test. We used a plastic control nest, a plas- tic nest with a partition to divide the nest into two areas offering some seclusion, a plastic nest with a ventilator un- derneath to create air flow inside the nest to mimic a drafty nest, and a wooden nest.
strong that the hens were willing to accept this environment as they continually returned to the nest, day after day.” To find out what would be the hens second best option, the wooden nests were closed off at some point in the study. Van den Oever comments: “Closing off the wooden nest led to a new nest choice which was the result of an interaction be- tween nest design and proximity to the closed wooden nest. The control nest was still preferred over the other two plastic designs, although the neighbouring nests closest to the wooden nest were preferred to the non-neighbouring nests.”
Full circle The study shows that hens have a strong preference for wooden nests. Van den Oever: “The material used for nests is an important factor in suitability and should therefore be tak- en into account when designing and choosing nests.” The re- searcher continues: “Our trial was designed following Europe- an housing standards but we expect that it will also be applicable in other parts of the world.” That said, the conclu- sion of the study and the clear preference for wooden nests has quite some implications. Van den Oever’s sponsor Venco- matic, for many years known for its high quality plastic nests, took the results to heart. As a result of Van den Oever’s work, the company acquired Van Gent, world famous for its wood- en nests, so it can offer the best fit for every farm. In combina- tion with optimum management and rearing, wooden nests can reduce the number of floor eggs to a minimum.
32 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 4, 2021
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