Shawna Weimer

Drinking behavior in poultry develops within the first couple days of life. When an open water source is provided, birds stick their beak roughly 10 mm into the water, use a scooping motion to collect water in their beak, extend their neck in a vertical position, and use gravity to transport water down their esophagus to their crop. While this sequence is the natural drinking behavior for birds, t ...

Damaging behaviors in poultry include feather pecking, vent pecking, and toe pecking. While feather and vent pecking are well-known welfare problems in poultry that have received significant attention from researchers and farmers, toe pecking remains relatively unknown. Therefore, this article aims to shed light on toe pecking.Toe pecking (TP) occurs when a laying hen pecks at her toes or the toes ...

The hatching phase of broiler production refers to the last three days of incubation, which are embryonic days 18-21. This phase of embryonic development is critical for the chick’s survival, as well as welfare and production later in life. In commercial hatcheries, eggs with viable embryos are transferred from incubators to hatching cabinets on embryonic day 18. Chicks hatch in the hatching ...

The holiday season is once again here, which means many kitchens will be filling up with baked goods and savory dishes. It is also the time of year when the use of eggs increases for all of those delicious dishes! However, eggs can be a potential source of Salmonella bacteria that can cause illness or in rare cases even death. Here are some tips to help reduce that risk in your kitchen.Eggs 101The ...

In cage-free housing, multi-tiered aviary structures are often used (pictured above), where key resources (i.e., feed, water, nests, perches) are available on elevated platforms called tiers, and litter substrate is available on the ground floor for dustbathing and foraging. Hens move vertically and horizontally across the elevated structures to access resources, which requires the hens to have sk ...

The first few days of life are some of the most important in chicks' lives. During this time, chicks start developing and set themselves up for the rest of their lifetime. The husbandry decisions made at this point can impact the birds' growth, development, health and welfare.This newsletter will focus on three important parts of giving chicks the best start:TemperatureFeedWater  &nbs ...