cannibalism in laying hens

It is well known that the behaviour is a good indicator of welfare of layinghens. The present study which carried out in Hohenheim University, Stuttgart,Germany, includes four experiments. Three experiments were carried out withlaying hens to study the effects of different light sources and its intensities onbehaviour, egg quality and performance of laying hens. The fourth experimentwas conducted in the different housing system to find out its effect in abovementioned parameters and signs of health in laying hens.1- The first experiment:rThe effects of different light sources on laying hens were tested under thesame intensity (25 lux). A total of 80 Lohmann brown hens (35 weeks old) werekept in side by side pens at a climatic stall and were randomly allocated to fourexperimental groups of 20 hens each. These groups were exposed to differentlight sources (incandescent IL, fluorescent FL, day DL and blue BL) at the sameintensity (25 lux) for eight weeks .. The environmental conditions wereautomatically controlled; moreover 14 h lighting schedule was maintainedduring experiment. Behaviour (mainly abnormal behaviour), egg quality andperformance of laying hens were recorded.The results showed that in laying hens: