Nesting behavior of Hy-Line hens in modified enriched colony cages.

Hens are motivated to seek out an enclosed nest site, but it is unclear whether the single communal nest in enriched colony cages (EC) adequately supports nesting. One method to investigate this is to provide an "alternative nest site" and determine the effects on laying location, timing of oviposition, and pre-laying behavior. The objective of this experiment was to determine whether increasing the degree of enclosure in the scratch area would influence egg laying location, time of oviposition, and pre-laying behavior.