CRAP!
--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, Cryptidwolf <cryptidwolf@...> wrote:
>
> "Free-range" chickens are the gold standard for consumers interested
> in humanely raised livestock. But for most chickens, the wide-open
> spaces of a free-range poultry farm aren't nearly as idyllic as they
> sound. The birds often peck at each other's feathers, causing painful
> scars, bleeding, and even death. Now, researchers have developed a
> mathematical model that may help farmers stop the pecking before it starts.
>
> It's unclear why chickens like to bite the feathers off their neighbors.
> According to bird-welfare researcher Bas Rodenburg of Wageningen
> University in the Netherlands, the best explanation is that they've
> evolved to peck for food in the wild, and this need is not satisfied on
> the farm. "Instead of pecking at the floor, for instance, they start
> pecking at each other's feathers," Rodenburg says. Right now, the only
> way for free-range farmers to prevent the behavior is beak trimming, a
> euphemism for cutting off the sharp tip of a bird's beak with a hot
> blade or directing infrared rays into its inner tissue until the tip
> falls off a few weeks later.
>
> To find a better solution, a team of zoologists and engineers studied
> video recordings of more than 300,000 hens living on free-range farms in
> the United Kingdom. The researchers applied a mathematical technique
> called optical flow modeling, which has been used to study traffic
> patterns and human crowds, to track how the chickens moved in large
> groups. The process involved analyzing multiple snapshots of the same 50
> to 100 hens taken at different times to find patterns of movement that
> correlate with chicken-on-chicken violence.
>
> Over time, a distinct pattern emerged. Chickens that moved around
> frequently tended not to peck at their companions. But birds that sat
> still for long periods of time and then showed sudden flurries of motion
> were more likely to hurt each other, the team reported online this month
> in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. Factors such as diet,
> breed, and air quality also influenced which groups were more prone to
> pecking.
>
> Co-author Marian Dawkins of the University of Oxford in the United
> Kingdom says the statistical model could anticipate with 87% accuracy
> which flocks of hens were most likely to become chronic feather-biters
> in the future. The team could make predictions as far in advance as 17
> to 20 weeks old---just after the birds are transported to the laying
> farm, though it got more difficult the further ahead they tried to look.
> Although it's just a preliminary study, Dawkins hopes the model may one
> day help farmers decide which chickens to keep together and which to
> separate. And that could result in a free-range farm that's truly humane
> for chickens.
>
> "For practical purposes, I think this could be an interesting approach,"
> says Rodenburg, who was not part of the team. Still, he says he would
> prefer a model that could predict feather damage even further in
> advance. "What you would really like, of course, is to mark flocks of
> hens that are at risk to develop feather pecking as early as possible,
> so preferably before they even move to the laying farm."
>
> For egg farmers in Europe at least, the solution can't come soon enough.
> Starting in 2012, the European Union will ban conventional cages---which
> often prevent the chickens from moving around, spreading their wings, or
> even standing up straight---for laying hens. Enriched cages, which give
> the hens slightly more space and include nest boxes and perches, will
> still be allowed under the new rules. But some E.U. countries are
> looking to ban those as well, which means the more vicious birds will
> have to learn to live with each other.
> http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/07/curbing-domestic-violence-in-chi.html
>
>
> --
> Mike -- USA zone 6b. 8 Chickens, 2 Rabbits, 2 Ducks. Spell check brought to you by the Greater Oklahoma-Arkansas Higher Learning Center. Helping inbred, snaggle-toothed idiots for over 100 years.
>
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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