It is the biggest problem facing the alternative egg production sector. But after 30 years of research scientists have come up with no solutions to the feather pecking problem and still cannot even agree on an explanation for why it happens.
This is the picture that emerged from the first major seminar aimed at "exploring solutions" to the menace which is costing producers millions in production losses and continuing to create a major welfare issue not least because it ensures that beak trimming continues to be widespread.
Held at Bristol University's Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, the one day Workshop uniquely brought together researchers, producers and industry figures and included scientists from four European countries.
Delegates heard that progress is being made by breeding companies who have produced more docile strains and from producers who have developed management systems to control outbreaks. But with the latest survey showing that half of British producers suffered outbreaks in their last flock there is still very little agreement among the scientific community on any aspect of feather pecking. One senior figure went so far as to say that the scientific research and commercial egg production were "mutually exclusive" because of the massive differences in scale.
It all led to Bristol University's Dr. Graham Perry to declare that he felt despair over the lack of progress made by the scientific community. The sign of hope for the future, he said, was that the amount of research was increasing dramatically and projects were now being conducted on a worldwide basis. But for now we still face a barrage of unanswered questions.
Why do hens do it? Hens have only one way of investigating things — pecking. So it is possible that feather pecking is a displaced version of some other form of pecking. Some researchers believe it is related to dust bathing — particularly as pecks may be aimed at dust particles on feathers. But others believe it is a corruption of feeding, foraging or preening. Some researchers emphatically believe that it has nothing to do with aggression.
Aggressive pecking activity in the hen is almost always aimed at the head and leads to an immediate back down or runaway response from the bird attacked. Feather pecking, they argue, is different because it is aimed usually at the back of another bird and the majority of these pecks are gentle and do no damage at all. Severe pecks that damage or remove feathers account for only about a third of all pecks. The 'feather pecking is different' school say these peckers are different from the birds who become cannibals. But other scientists appear to regard all feather pecking as 'aggressive' and associate it directly with vent pecking and cannibalism.
One new theory was explained to the Workshop by Dr. John Savoury of the Scottish Agricultural College who revealed research which showed the extent to which hens eat feathers even though they have no nutritional value and "pass straight through" the bird.
Examination of droppings showed that as many as 48% contained feathers that had been eaten. The possibility is that birds develop the habit of eating feathers of a certain size as the young flock moults as it matures. When the feathers become in short supply the feather eaters help themselves from the backs of other birds. This could lead to a theory that the peckers are attracted by the taste or smell of the preening oil which issues from the preening gland adjacent to the area pecked.
Why do they stand for it? If pecking remains a mystery so does the question of why the birds being feather pecked do not resist or object. But it has led to the belief that feather pecking may be a distorted version of some sort of social behaviour and is therefore not discouraged.
There is no evidence to show the amount of pain the pecked hen feels and why it continues to accept pecking even when this involves cannibalism which is so severe it may lead to its death. One possibility is that being pecked prompts the body to release chemicals that block the pain.
Which hens do it? Feather pecking outbreaks are begun by a limited number of birds and then spreads throughout the flock. This leads to the daunting proposition that even if major break-through were discovered it would take just a couple of rogue hens to short circuit the developments and start an outbreak .
But there is no way of identifying which hens are going to be the initial peckers. Some characteristics which are associated with high level peckers have been established. So we know that peckers are more active, walk about more and forage more. They lay more but smaller eggs and they are more food efficient. Hens which do not feather peck indulge in more ground pecking and food pecking which may support the view that feather peckers are misdirecting normal activity. Birds can get "turned on" to feather pecking and initial pecks then turn into bouts of pecking but why it spreads throughout a flock is not known.
What triggers it? Feather pecking is, apparently, always associated with stress. And speaker after speaker at the Workshop produced their own list of stress inducers. And since no one of them can be shown to be the answer the buzz phrase employed by all is "multi-factorial". The factors include pullets with low liveweight at start of lay, inappropriate or bright lighting, turning up light levels during inspections, feeding pellets instead of mash, vermin, predators, disease and high stocking density, poor ranging and changes to the litter.
Food is clearly important and changes in diet can be critical. Some producers admit to changing a flock diet more than three times but it was pointed out that even a constant supply from one company can change several times during the life of one flock because the supplier changes the composition of the feed.
Most items on the list of stressors comes down to management competence. And one theory for high levels of outbreaks is the large numbers of newcomers entering the free range industry with little or no experience. But new research, which involved dozens of BFREPA members, came up with some novel stress factors which included the house temperature falling below 20 degrees C, the use of bell drinkers and having no loose litter left at the end of lay. Flocks which are only ever inspected by one person are also more likely to develop feather pecking — perhaps because they are unaccustomed to change.
Is rearing important? Yes. Just about every aspect of rearing has been shown to affect feather pecking. Dr Beat Huber-Eicher of the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office revealed that the number of visits to young birds by the stockperson and the time they spent in the pen with them was vital. In birds that had low levels of such care the likelihood of feather pecking increased almost three-fold. When chicks were kept in cardboard rings on the floor for the first days of their lives then the likelihood of them feather pecking went up by more than six times. Providing perches and the right kind of litter (like peat or straw) also dramatically reduces the chances of an outbreak. "If you do not provide young birds with litter you are almost guaranteeing that you will have problems with feather pecking," said Dr. Linda Keeling of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Can it be bred out? It is possible to select for strains of hen that are less likely to feather peck and at the Workshop producers accepted that progress had been made towards the more docile layer. But there are problems. If feather pecking is related to egg production, food conversion and other characteristics, then reducing one can affect others. Could smothering, for example, be a side effect of breeding for non aggressive birds? If the hen is deprived of its ability to fight for its place in the peck order could it also lose its natural<
