A study on welfare and productivity of laying chickens through free-range poultry farming and integrating agricultural tourism

Abstract

The poultry/egg-laying industry in the Philippines is constantly growing as the years go on. As a result, consumers began to question the poultry products they were consuming, what type of environment the chickens were in, what type of housing the chicken had been housed in, and the welfare of the chickens. Nowadays, producers are confronted with demands to improve the welfare of the chickens and produce quality products. Chicken welfare is a major concern in poultry/egg production because if the welfare of the chickens is low, it will affect the production of the chickens. Chicken welfare can consider disease prevention, management, good shelter, and humane handling & slaughtering. Poultry farms have different poultry housing; battery-cage is the most common type of housing used in the Philippines, followed by free-range and cage-free housing. Because of the limited space, chickens housed in battery cages have a limited space to express their natural behaviors, unlike free-range and cage-free housings. Later in the following chapters, the chickens' natural behavior and the different problems they encounter inside their poultry housing and transfiguring a poultry house that enhances animal welfare from a study into the planning approach will be discussed.