Blacksburg, VA
Bored Broilers
We know that humans and other animals including rodents can get bored, what about birds? Commercial environments are barren and present few behavioral opportunities or natural stimuli. How do we ask chickens if they are bored? The team at Virginia Tech wanted to find out.
The Goal:
Translating emotion from behavior
Funding provided: $5,400
Resources such as perches, dust baths, and shelters allow birds to have more variety of experience and choice. This project compared interaction with positive, negative, and neutral novel objects between broilers raised in barren or complex environments.
The Outcomes:
Learning about boredom isn’t just for the birds
Working with a leading poultry welfare scientist, 11 students learned about animal welfare science through the lens of these growing birds.
What Folks Are Saying
“I am grateful to the bored broiler project for giving me a chance to participate and help out with this research. [...] Coming into college I knew I wanted to work with animals, but I was unsure what particular animals I was most interested in. Being a part of this group has made me more aware of the importance of broiler related work, and it has encouraged me to continue to look into its possibilities, along with increasing my interest in the avian industry as a whole. Animals are diverse creatures, and there is so much for us to learn from them.”
- Isaiah M., Student Volunteer
Undergraduate student Leo P. studied the impact of raising birds in enriched environments.
