Freedom To Express Normal Behavior Analysis

Behaviour includes the noticeable actions, motions, and means by which animals deal with their environment, including other animals in the same environment. (Muir and Cheng, 2014). Therefore, the window between the living organism and the outside world is the behaviour (Graves, 1982). It lets the animal meet the necessary levels of biological setup below that of the animal and to adjust to levels of biological group above that of the animal as well as to adjust to the ambient surrounding ( Mauldin, 1992). The expression of natural behaviour is a commonly used tool in ethology and used for the assessment of the welfare of poultry destined for human consumption (Costa et al., 2012). Natural behaviour can also be defined as the behaviour which,
Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind.
5. Freedom from Fear and Distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment to avoid mental suffering.”
The importance of behaviour to the animal’s ability to adapt the husbandry practices was accepted early during the establishment of the domestication process (Hale, 1969; Ratner and Boice, 1975). Afterward specific husbandry backgrounds have been emphasized due to the necessity to find and define behavioral requirements of the chicken (Mauldin, 1992) and the most profitable producers are those who have identified behavioral complications within their flocks and have performed to adjust their husbandry practices accordingly (Mauldin, 1992).
In May, 2007 the EU commissions established new guidelines for animal welfare in poultry production due to the demand of high quality products produced under better welfare condition (Costa et al., 2012). Therefore, it is imperative to understand the behavioural patterns of chicken to estimate the welfare condition in order to produce good quality meat and egg. Figure 1: Relationship of animal behaviour and
Since 1967, this breed has been implemented in Label Rouge production System in France (Baeza et al., 2009). This production system is for rearing slow-growing chickens with free range access up to at least 84 days (King, 1984 cited by Farmer et al., 1997). The French Department of Agriculture has labeled this chicken as appellation d’origine controlee (AOC) in 1957 (Baeza et al., 2009) which is an official certification of origin and quality.

Nevertheless, there is no available behavioural research publication on Les Bleues chicken breed. The original intentions of the studies are: -To understand the behavioural patterns of LB chicken -To understand the behavioural differences based on age groups -To reveal the behavioural changes in the different periods of the day -To understand the seasonal behavioural differences.

Comparison in different age groups was performed to test the hypothesis ‘Age has an effect on the behavioural expression’. Comparison of behaviour between morning and afternoon as well as between autumn and spring were done to test the hypothesis ‘Behavioural expressions are season and time dependent’.
The results of this study could provide indications which can help to gain a better understanding of the behavioural pattern of LB chicken, a breed that can easily be managed in dual purpose chicken