A note on the behaviour of the chicken that receives feather pecks

Basic knowledge of feather pecking on the individual level is still limited. The aim of this study was to investigate whether active and inactive individuals preferentially attract feather pecking. Female layer hen chicks were housed in six pens with each 15 chicks. Each occurrence of gentle and severe feather-pecking bout was recorded continuously in all pens for 30 min/pen/week when the chickens were 0–23 weeks of age. For each feather-pecking bout, the behaviour (active/inactive, dustbathing/non-dustbathing) of the recipient bird immediately before being feather pecked was recorded. Inactive individuals were more likely to become the targets of both gentle (when pecks directed to dustbathing chickens were excluded) and severe feather pecks (both when including and excluding feather pecks directed to dustbathing chickens) than active individuals. This knowledge may be used to reduce feather pecking by providing distinct resting areas such that mixing of active and inactive chickens is avoided.