Benefits of shade and shelter for layer hens

SPCA Certified egg-laying hens are raised in either barn or free range systems. Free range chickens are housed in a shed with the opportunity to access an outdoor area during the day.

Access to an outside area provides an important opportunity to perform behaviours normal for hens like pecking, exploration and dust bathing. However, it’s important for chickens who have outdoor access to have appropriate shade and shelter.

This is because modern breeds of chicken are descended from the red junglefowl, which lives in the dense, dry forests of South East Asia. As a ground living bird, they spend much of their time scratching for food and keeping an eye on the skies for predators, such as hawks. Studies of farmed chickens have shown that chickens showed a clear preference to be around trees and shrubs, even where they were far from the shed. The researchers concluded that wide open fields were simply not a preferred habitat for a bird descended from a jungle living ancestor.

Tree plantings on free-range egg farms have become common and are now a requirement of many animal welfare certification programmes, including SPCA Certified. Artificial shelters can also be provided in outdoor farming systems to help improve chicken welfare.

The outcome is an environment that is more suited to the animal’s requirements and greatly improves their welfare in accordance with the Five Domains, which is the model that underpins SPCA Certified.

SPCA Certified standards for chickens explicitly require that shade/shelter covers at least 20% of the range. This goes further than the minimum standard under the law, which does not set any requirements around the quantity or quality of shelter.

In addition, SPCA Certified requires that free range chickens must be able to access the range for at least 8 hours each day. Our standard sets specific requirements for the number and size of ‘pop holes’ (doors to access the range), which the minimum standard under the law does not do.

Shade and shelter can have multiple benefits for chickens. For example, more foraging opportunities can help reduce the risk of feather pecking. Overhead shelter helps reduce paradise burden near the shed by drawing chickens out onto the range.

See below to learn more about the many benefits of providing shade and shelter for layer hens.