Drinking Behaviour

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Del curso dictado por The University of Edinburgh

Chicken Behaviour and Welfare

350 calificaciones

The University of Edinburgh

Chicken Behaviour and Welfare

350 calificaciones

This course explains the general principles of chicken behaviour and welfare, and the behavioural and physiological indicators that can be used to assess welfare in chickens kept in hobby flocks through to commercial farms. The focus is primarily on laying hens and meat chickens (broilers) although many of the principles are relevant to other types of poultry. The course is likely to be of interest to people who own chickens as pets or keep a small hobby flock, commercial egg and chicken meat producers, veterinarians and vet nurses. Learning Objectives: at the end of this course, you will be able to - - Describe avian sensory perception and motivation - Explain the main behaviour patterns of poultry - Define welfare and explain the bases of welfare standards - Assess chicken welfare, using behavioural and physiological means - Understand common welfare problems of chickens This course is taught by staff from Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), University of Glasgow, and St David's Poultry Team. You can follow us on Twitter! #chickenmooc © University of Edinburgh and Scotland's Rural College 2016 CC BY

De la lección

Behaviour Patterns of Chickens, Part 1

During this week, we will consider some of the major behaviour patterns of chickens, such as maintenance behaviours of chickens, and social behaviours. Maintenance behaviours means feeding, drinking, and comfort activities. Comfort activities include preening, dustbathing, and perching (among others). Social behaviours include communication, dominance, aggression, and spacing. This week will be a combination of video lectures, in-video quizzes and an interview with a backyard producer.

Introduction To Maintenance Behaviours1:23

Feeding Behaviour1:47

History Of Feeding, Contrafreeloading3:14

Motivation To Show Feeding Phases1:25

Broiler Feeding Behaviour1:50

Drinking Behaviour3:18

Conoce a los instructores

Dr Victoria Sandilands
Senior scientist
Avian Science Research Centre, SRUC

Different bird species use different methods to drink water.

Chicken have to use gravity to get water to flow down the esophagus, so

as a consequence, they have to scoop the water up in their beak,

then tip their head back to allow to gravity to take effect.

This is very different to say, pigeons which suck water up

using negative pressure, much same way you and I would use a straw.

Adult chickens will drink between 150 and 200 millilitres of water per day.

But that of course, will depend on the ambient temperature, and

they will drink more if it's warmer.

Chicks may need assistance in the first few days of life to find water.

When you bring chicks into your farm, or small holding, what we tend to do here

is dip their beaks into the water source to help them find that water.

Chickens that are reared on one type of drinker type, and then moved to

housing with a new type of drinker type may also need assistance finding water.

If you're introducing chickens to an established flock,

usually the old birds will kind of teach the new birds how to find water,

because they're drinking from your water source all the time.

But if you're bringing in entirely new stock, then keep a careful eye on water

consumption to ensure that your birds have found the water source.

Typically, chickens will spend longer drinking from a nipple style of drinker.

So, about 6% of their daily time budget,

as oppose to bell drinkers like we have here.

That only takes about 2 to 3% of their time budget to ingest

the same amount of water.

That's because flow rate is limited in a nipple system.

The type of drinking system that you choose depends partly on your needs, but

also what your poultry sheds are like.

So, for example, do you have plumbed-in water to your poultry shed?

That will affect the kind of drinker system you choose, but

also, how much automation do you need?

If you have a very large flock,

you might want a water system that automatically fills to save you time.

Different drinker types are also used for different types of chicken production.

So, for example, broiler chickens like these guys behind me, are typically reared

with nipple drinkers, and the nipple line is raised gradually as the chickens grow.

Hens on the other hand might be reared with nipple lines, or

with bell drinkers, and they do equally well, on either.

One of the drawbacks to bell drinkers though,

is that there is more opportunities for birds to knock them, and

thus spill water onto the litter, which can make your litter wetter, and dirtier.

Drinking behavior is closely associated with feeding behavior in time across

the course of the day.

But the amount of water drunk is also closely associated with the amount of

feed eaten by birds.

So, birds will drink about 1.6 to 2 times as much water,

as food by weight in the course of a day.

And this is partly affected by the type of drinker that you give them.

So, typically, the ratio of water to food is lower with nipple drinkers.

The effect of nipple drinkers also affects how wet the fecal droppings are from

birds, and so typically, droppings will be drier from birds that

are using nipple drinkers, as opposed to bell drinkers.

Yep.

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