Different soil media for free-range laying hens

Evangelia N. Sossidou (1, 2)

1 Animal Research Institute
2 Veterinary Research Institute

1.A replicated experiment compared the bird use, soil structure, grass wear and free-moving nematode populations in four different soil media (recycled vegetable compost, 90% recycled vegetable compost and 10% sand, re-used topsoil and sterilized topsoil) all with established grass swards within the range area of a large free-range laying hen unit. 2.The birds initially spent a greater proportion (P<0.01) of their time on the two topsoil swards in comparison to the two compost-based swards. However, once the whole flock of hens had prolonged access to the different swards (unfenced areas) there were no significant (P>0.05) differences in the number of birds that frequented the different sward types. 3.The two compost-based soil media had 33% fewer (P<0.05) nematodes per gram of dry soil compared to the two topsoil based media. However, the rate of loss of grass from the subplots was greater (P<0.001) with the two compost-based soil media that was probably due to the greater (P<0.01) porosity of these types of soil media.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Evangelia N. Sossidou. Different soil media for free-range laying hens. British Poultry Science, 2008, 49 (04), pp.390-395. ⟨10.1080/00071660802159041⟩. ⟨hal-00545336⟩