Influence of various nesting materials on nest site selection of the domestic hen

Nesting behaviour of LSL hens from a deep litter house and from a battery system was compared. Every hen was tested in one of two trial chambers containing a wire mesh floor and a nest unit with 5 nesting materials: wire mesh, perforated plastic, synthetic grass, wheat straw and oat husk. Wheat straw and oat husk were preferred as nesting materials to perforated plastic, synthetic grass and wire mesh. The results from these trials were confirmed in a deep litter house. After the nesting material, oat husk, was changed in two of 10 communal nests the hens did not accept those two nests for the trial period of two weeks and laid elsewhere. Hens of the same breed and age reared together on deep litter showed no differences in nest site selection and nesting behaviour regardless of whether they had previously been housed in a deep litter house or in cages.