ReviewAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2016
Influences of Maternal Care on Chicken Welfare.
Review in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Early post-hatch feeding and drinking behavior and body weight development in white and brown layer chickens.Poultry science · 2026Article
- Chick neonatal environment: the presence of a hen, not hatching system, promotes cecal microbiota development and induces limited long-term effects on immunity and redox balance.Poultry science · 2026Article
- Assessing preferences for adult versus juvenile features in young animals: Newly hatched chicks spontaneously approach red and large stimuli.Learning & behavior · 2025Article
- Pre-hatching social interactions mediated by acoustic signals. Dynamics of click emission and hatching synchronization in birds.PloS one · 2025Article
- Early-life contact with non-maternal adult cows and a pasture-based rearing environment influence behavioural responses of dairy heifers to novelty.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Article
- Animal affect, welfare and the Bayesian brain.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Review
- Contact with Mature Cows and Access to Pasture during Early Life Shape Dairy Heifer Behaviour at Integration into the Milking Herd.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Why-Oh-Why? Dark Brooders Reduce Injurious Pecking, Though Are Still Not Widely Used in Commercial Rearing of Layer Pullets.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Nigerian indigenous hens show more discomfort-related behavior with visual separation than physical separation from their chicks: An exploratory study.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Article
- Prenatal and Early Postnatal Behavioural Programming in Laying Hens, With Possible Implications for the Development of Injurious Pecking.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2021Review
- Why Do Hens Pile? Hypothesizing the Causes and Consequences.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2020Article
- A review of environmental enrichment for laying hens during rearing in relation to their behavioral and physiological development.Poultry science · 2019Review
- Modulation of Fear and Arousal Behavior by Serotonin Transporter (5-HTT) Genotypes in Newly Hatched Chickens.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In domestic chickens, the provision of maternal care strongly influences the behavioural development of chicks. Mother hens play an important role in directing their chicks' behaviour and are able to buffer their chicks' response to stressors. Chicks imprint upon their mother, who is key in directing the chicks' behaviour and in allowing them to develop food preferences. Chicks reared by a mother hen are less fearful and show higher levels of behavioural synchronisation than chicks reared artificially. In a commercial setting, more fearful chicks with unsynchronised behaviour are more likely to develop behavioural problems, such as feather pecking. As well as being an inherent welfare problem, fear can also lead to panic responses, smothering, and fractured bones. Despite the beneficial effects of brooding, it is not commercially viable to allow natural brooding on farms and so chicks are hatched in large incubators and reared artificially, without a mother hen. In this review we cover the literature demonstrating the important features of maternal care in domestic chickens, the behavioural consequences of deprivation and the welfare implications on commercial farms. We finish by suggesting ways to use research in natural maternal care to improve commercial chick rearing practice.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.