I can hear them - a good sign.
They are moving, scratching the ground
and interacting with each other.
Those are basic requirements for a happy chicken.
We are on the Ruthe Farm for Education and Research
of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation.
The laying hens scratching happily belong to the
large-scale "Integhof" research project.
The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
is funding the project with 1.8 million Euros.
The project essentially addresses animal welfare,
improvement of housing conditions and performance
and economic parameters.
Today's poultry lines have been bred for high performance.
They are specialized in producing meat or eggs.
Only hens can lay eggs.
The layer-type male birds are not suitable for fattening.
So about 40 million of these male day-old chicks are killed every year.
To change this, the males and females of the dual-purpose chicken
were stabled in Ruthe:
The idea is to keep the dual-purpose hens for egg production
and to "fatten" the male chickens.
They have a different genetic make-up than conventional broilers
and grow more slowly until they reach an acceptable weight.
The broiler is usually slaughtered after 35 days.
The dual-purpose male bird lives for about 70 days,
making the fattening more animal-friendly:
Why is it better to first fatten animals and then slaughter them instead
of killing them right after hatch?
That's a very good question.
It is simply not acceptable that a newly hatched chick
is discarded as trash just because it is male
and not suitable for fattening.
The Intgehof project also focuses on improved animal husbandry, e.g.
Conventional husbandry does not provide
any structuring in the barn.
Chickens don't have any facilities to sit on, e.g. roosts.
Our research approach aims to provide an environment
to the animals that encourages them to move around more.
Movement and diversion may lead to a reduction of stress
in larger groups of animals.
Relaxed animals are important.
Unlike in conventional husbandry, the beaks of chickens
are not trimmed - but injuries must be avoided.
The TiHo researchers also investigate how a modified husbandry
affects the bird's health.
They expect that slowly growing birds have a better
immune defence and need fewer antibiotics.
One of my special interest is infection medicine
and the animal's defensive performance.
My working group will attend the study on the Ruthe Teaching
and Research Farm as it relates to animal health.
I.e. we will investigate the immune response after vaccination,
how it develops and also reasons for death.
It will take some time until there are results from the lab.
The project is scheduled for three years.
Some early results:
The eggs of dual-purpose hens are smaller,
the fattened male birds cost more.
But the birds appear more relaxed than their conventional cousins.
Perhaps consumers are willing to pay the extra price
so that animals live healthier
and more species-appropriate.