In the research, carried out on poultry farm Krumperk, we investigated a difference in behaviour and production characteristics between two chicken breeds with the use of different coloured grinding papers. We included 87 black and 83 spotted prelux hens, from 65 to 73 weeks of age. The hens were housed in enriched, three-storey cages. Each cage was equipped with specially mounted detachable troughs, two perches, nesting area, scratch pad and four nipple-type drinkers. We studied how the different colour of the grinding paper influences the length of the claw. We placed orange and red grinding paper in 6 cages each. Hens in the next 6 cages served as a control group with the original industrial grinding sheet metal. Our main hypothesis was that the colour of the grinding paper affects claw length. We did not confirm hypotheses, as there were no statistically significant differences between red and orange grinding paper. Our second hypothesis was that there are differences between the two breeds. We could confirm the hypothesis with black prelux hens consuming more feed, laying bigger and heavier eggs, but having a lower laying performance. They spent less time perching, but more time feeding and drinking.
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