Exploratory behaviour of young domestic fowl

Under the hypothesis that young domestic fowl, Gallus gallus, are motivated to seek opportunities to explore novel stimuli, it was predicted that broiler chickens would show greater motivation to enter peripheral space if it contained (a) novel objects (changed daily) than if it was (b) empty or contained (c) essential resources (food, water, heat) or (d) supplementary resources (peat moss, straw bale, elevated platform). Sixteen pens, each containing 100 chickens, were set up with a home area containing essential resources and an adjacent peripheral area of the same size to which the chickens were allowed access for 3 h daily by opening a gate. There were four replicate pens on each of four treatments varying in the resources (a-d) provided in the peripheral area. During week 6, continuous video recordings showed that more chickens on the novel objects treatment ran into the peripheral area during the first 5 min after the gates were opened than did chickens on the other three treatments (P < 0.001). From weeks 2 to 6, scan samples at hourly intervals while the gates were open indicated that, on average, the number of chickens in the peripheral area was significantly higher on the essential resources treatment, and significantly lower on the empty treatment, than on the novel objects and supplementary resources treatments. Chicken survival, body weight and feed efficiency did not differ between treatments (P > 0.05). The results support the hypothesis that the chickens were motivated to seek opportunities to explore novel stimuli. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.