Understanding broilers chicken behavior is one of the best ways to manage them easily. Like every other livestock, broilers chicken behaviors are a guide to effective management to enhance their productivity or yield.

Broilers have specific or basic needs that must be met to maintain their general well-being. The broiler chickens should be kept in an environment that provide them the ability to peck, scratch, run around freely, and groom their feathers, flap their wings freely, rest and sleep soundly without any disturbances.

In the quest to understand the broiler chicken behaviors, farmers must ask general questions that deeply explains their overall behavioral characteristics.

What are typical broiler chicken behaviors?

Broilers are heavy feeders. This means they feed round the clock as long as you make feed available for them. Their feeding behavior is predominantly observed from day old. Although they may not show the feeding competitive habit the first 3 days of life, they gradually develop this habit overtime especially if they observe any feed scarcity in their feeding cans for some time.

The broiler chickens in their natural environment engage in foraging, scratching and dust-bathing. This natural behavior does not elude them even in their confined state. They would occasionally display these characters. This is why the best Penn for raising the broiler chicken remain the deep litter system that provide them with the opportunity to display these characters even though not up to standard in their natural environment.

A healthy broiler chicken predominantly chooses the standing posture while feeding.  When your broiler chicken sits almost half of the time feeding, it is a sign that something is possibly not ok with it.

How do you tell or show your broiler chickens you love them?

Like other pets, chickens can bond easily with humans. While it seem odd to some people when chickens behave like the other pets like dogs and cats, it is simply natural to have you’re your chickens behave such way too. Your broiler chicken behaviors are influenced by the way you handle them. Love is the ultimate to share with any domesticated animal including chickens. Like dogs that are always hostile to strangers unless their owners that shows them love and affection, chickens aren’t entirely different.

Chickens are quiet very intelligent animals. They start developing a bond with you as you attend to them every day. At first, they may be afraid of you any time you approach them but they gradually get use to you being around and may even start following you around jumping on you pretty soon.

To show your chickens you love them, you have to:

Spend Quality Time With Them Daily

Your chicken behaviors towards you changes gradually as you spend more quality time with them daily. Spend quality time to listen to their silent voices, pick them up and play with them, talk to them like you were talking to a human. Surprisingly, they are hearing everything you say but can’t respond.

Although older chickens may find it hard to bond with you, spending quality time with them daily is one of the best ways to get them to trust you and bond with you. You can spend some time inside their Penn, sit close to them and down to their level, try to call them close. You can spread some of their feed around you so they can get close to you while they feed and get to know you better. At any point, do not try to startle them or get them afraid. They may never trust you.

Let Them Know You Are Around

You should learn to talk to your birds in a distinctive way. Whenever you leave them for some time, device a way to let them know you are back even before they see you. The more you talk to your birds when you are around, the more they learn to recognize your voice from a distance even before they see you. They get excited when they hear your voice and run around to meet you because they know food is on its way. Talk with your birds anytime you are around. Move slowly when you are inside their house. Stay around to watch them eat after filling up their feeding cans. Eating in your presence undisturbed helps them to build trust and learn to know you better.

Serve Them Treats Routinely

Naturally, domesticated chickens like every other pets like treats. This is because they are deprived of these natural seeds, nuts, and forages from their natural habitat. Whether it is fruits, cracked corn, mealworms, table scraps they will always come running after you to get them on. Bringing your chickens treats regularly and sitting nearby to watch them peck on them is one of the best ways to show your broiler chickens you love them. With time, you can get the feeding trays closer to you while they eat to get them even more bonded with you. Once they get used to you being around while they eat, you can have them eat the treats in your hands. Congratulations if they do because it shows that they’ve completely trust you.

Get To Know Your Chickens

Among your chicken coop are different personalities of chickens. A careful observation will reveal that not all your chickens behave or act the same way. Some of your chickens may love to fight for food, rush the food and even peck you while trying to serve them feed. Others may never rush no matter the number of hours they were left without food. There are also some of your chickens that will never eat the food you serve them but rather chase insects and scratch their bedding material for food. A careful observation is necessary to get to your broiler chicken behaviors and help you spot very fast when something goes wrong.

Serve Them Premium Quality Chicken Feed

A quality feed makes a happy chicken. Although broiler chickens are heavy feeders, they are also very selective of feeds based on their nutritional content. The broiler chicken once fed a complete formula feed can spot out very easily when the feed quality changes and either avoid the feed or just waste it.

What are common behavioral problems with the Broiler chickens?

The Broiler chickens which are specifically bred for meat often exhibit various behavioral problems following living conditions, their breeding, and other factors.

Below are some behavioral problems associated with the broiler chickens:

Aggression

Aggression is one of the common behavioral problems associated with the broiler chickens. This is more common when they have limited space and compete for almost everything including food, water and space.  Understanding the broiler chicken behaviors is one of the easiest ways to cob their aggressive nature.

Cannibalism

Most practical farmers are often faced with cannibalism behaviors in their broilers coop. Cannibalism and feathers pecking are common behavior of broiler chickens especially when they are overcrowded and stressed.  Fatal injuries and death can occur from cannibalism.

Vent pecking can also occur in broilers due to stress and lack of some vital nutritional components of their feeds.

Lameness

Skeletal problems (lameness) are a common problem of broilers because of their fast growth and abrupt weight gain. This condition can lead to difficulty of the affected birds to move around the Penn to access their food and water worsening other welfare issues.

Respiratory Issues

Poor ventilation and high ammonia levels in broiler houses can lead to respiratory problems among chickens, such as coughing, sneezing, and respiratory infections.

Heat stress

Especially in poorly ventilated poultry Penns or hot climates, the Broiler chickens are susceptible to heat stress. Broilers generate internal body heat during the process of feed digestion which can worsen their general body system in the hot sunny days. Longer exposure to this thermal condition can expose them to flip-up-and-die syndrome, a condition commonly observed among the bigger sizes of the flock especially the males. Heat stress can also break down the body immunity of the broiler chickens exposing them to all kinds of infections including the Newcastle Disease Virus, the Gumboro Disease and others.

Understanding the broiler chicken behaviors is one of the surest ways to bond easily with them, make them feel loved, easily spot abnormal behaviors that could put them at a risk and help to make the most out of their productive lives.