Found this last week just got time today to post it.
Chicken Behaviour and Welfare FREE online
https://www.coursera.org/course/chickensAbout the Course
This course will explain the general principles of chicken behaviour and welfare, and the behavioural and physiological indicators that can be used to assess welfare in chickens kept in hobby flocks through to commercial farms. The focus is primarily on laying hens and meat chickens (broilers) although many of the principles will be relevant to other types of poultry. The course is likely to be of interest to people who own chickens as pets or keep a small hobby flock, commercial egg and chicken meat producers, veterinarians and vet nurses.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this course, you will be able to:
Describe avian sensory perception and motivation.
Explain the main behaviour patterns of poultry.
Define welfare and explain the bases of welfare standards.
Assess chicken welfare, using behavioural and physiological means
Understand common welfare problems of chickens.
This course is taught by staff from Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) and St David's Poultry Team.
Course Syllabus
The course syllabus is likely to include:
Week 1: Introduction to behaviour
Introduction to online learning and the course structure and content
Introduction to the study of animal behaviour, domestication
Behavioural development: prehatch, imprinting, learning, hormonal influence
The senses (vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch) and motivation
Week 2: Behaviour patterns of chickens: maintenance and social behaviours
Maintenance behaviour: feeding, drinking, comfort activities.
Social behaviour: communication, spacing, dominance, aggression, social spacing
Week 3: Behaviour patterns of chickens: reproductive and abnormal behaviours
Reproductive behaviour: male (courtship and mating), female (nesting, laying and brooding)
Abnormal behaviours: overdrinking, feather pecking, egg and litter eating
Week 4: Chicken welfare
What is welfare?
Ethics of meeting animals’ welfare needs
Recommendations and standards used by accreditation schemes
Indicators of welfare (behavioural and physiological)
Is free-range always best? Challenging the perception of what is good for welfare
Week 5: Welfare problems of common production systems including hobby flocks
Welfare of layers: cage and non-cage systems
Welfare of broilers: indoor to free range
Transport, slaughter and emergency killing
Raf
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