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Effects of Perching on Poultry Welfare and Production
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  • Update Date: 16 Dec 2025
  • poultry production
  • animal housing system
  • perching behavior
  • perch design
  • animal health and welfare
Video Introduction

This video is adapted from 10.3390/poultry2020013

Perching is one of the essential natural behaviors for avian species. Providing an optimal perching design (e.g., shape, dimension, and materials) for commercial poultry production is critical for maintaining bird health, welfare, and production efficiency. This video summarizes poultry perching studies and discusses the relationship between perch design, bird welfare, and production efficiency. Providing perches at an early stage may ensure optimum use during adulthood, reduce perching accidents, and lower the risk of floor eggs in cage-free (CF) hen houses. Therefore, a perch space of 15 cm per bird is recommended for the CF hen house. Similarly, rectangular perches are preferred to circular perches as the rectangular perch provides hens with an excellent tendon-locking mechanism to prevent slipping. In addition, perches with softer materials, such as polyurethane and rubber coverings, are recommended to increase the contact surface on the chicken’s toes. Perching behavior (PB) promotes a musculocutaneous system and reduces the incidence of footpad dermatitis and lesions. Generally, providing perching may reduce aggression and stress in birds and improve welfare and production efficiency. In the case of broilers, it is found that the broiler perches less during the latter stage of their lives because they are comparatively heavier and exhibit a more inactive lifestyle. Studies have investigated the effect of the surface temperature of the perch on broilers’ welfare. Perches with lower temperatures help improve performance and welfare by relieving heat stress and leg issues. Overall, PB is required to improve bird health and welfare.

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Bist, R.B.; Subedi, S.; Chai, L.; Regmi, P.; Ritz, C.W.; Kim, W.K.; Yang, X. Effects of Perching on Poultry Welfare and Production. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/video/video_detail/1748 (accessed on 27 December 2025).
Bist RB, Subedi S, Chai L, Regmi P, Ritz CW, Kim WK, et al. Effects of Perching on Poultry Welfare and Production. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/video/video_detail/1748. Accessed December 27, 2025.
Bist, Ramesh Bahadur, Sachin Subedi, Lilong Chai, Prafulla Regmi, Casey W. Ritz, Woo Kyun Kim, Xiao Yang. "Effects of Perching on Poultry Welfare and Production" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/video/video_detail/1748 (accessed December 27, 2025).
Bist, R.B., Subedi, S., Chai, L., Regmi, P., Ritz, C.W., Kim, W.K., & Yang, X. (2025, December 16). Effects of Perching on Poultry Welfare and Production. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/video/video_detail/1748
Bist, Ramesh Bahadur, et al. "Effects of Perching on Poultry Welfare and Production." Encyclopedia. Web. 16 December, 2025.
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