The University of Edinburgh offers a free online course named as “Chicken Behaviour and Welfare”. 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.
The focus is primarily on laying hens and meat chickens (broilers) although many of the principles are relevant to other types of poultry. The course will start on 6 February 2017.
Course At A Glance
- Length: 6 weeks
- Effort:
- Subject: Chicken Behaviour
- Institution: The University of Edinburgh
- Languages: English, Subtitles: French
- Price: Free
- Certificate Available: Yes
- Session: The course will start on February 6, 2017
Providers Details
- About University: Delivering excellence in teaching and learning. The university is consistently ranked as one of the world’s top 50 universities and top 3 UK providers of online Masters Courses. The University of Edinburgh offers over 700 diverse degree programs with over 31,000 students currently studying with us from across the world.
- Aim of University: As a world-leading center of academic excellence we aim to enhance our position as one of the world’s leading research and teaching universities and to measure our performance against the highest international standards. Provide the highest quality learning and teaching environment for the greater wellbeing of our students.
Requirements
There is no eligibility or prerequisites for the course. 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.
About This Course
- Benefits: This course explains the general principles of chicken behavior and welfare, and the behavioral and physiological indicators that can be used to assess welfare in chickens kept in hobby flocks through to commercial farms. The language of the course is English, Subtitles: French.
- Importance of the Subject in Today’s Scenario: Knowing a little about chicken behavior is crucial to keeping chickens. Hopefully, knowing a little bit about chicken behavior may sway you if you’re sitting on the fence about whether to raise chickens. Raising chickens is a fun hobby, even if you’re raising them for serious meat or egg production. When the power goes out, you can go back to the times of your forefathers: Sit out on the porch and watch the chickens instead of TV.
How to Join This Course
You should signup yourself through the given link to join this free on-line course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/chickens?authMode=signup
Course Format
WEEK 1: This brief module will tell you all the things you need to know to begin, including the syllabus of the course, who they are, how to engage with one another.
WEEK 2: During this week, they will consider some of the major behaviour patterns of chickens, such as maintenance behaviours of chickens, and social behaviours. Maintenance behaviours mean feeding, drinking, and comfort activities.
WEEK 3: In this week, we will consider the reproduction process in chickens, from courtship to brooding and hatching of eggs. We will then look at some abnormal behaviours that you might see in chickens.
WEEK 4: During this week, they will consider what we mean by “animal welfare”, and how a set of criteria known as the Five Freedoms can help you assess it. Dr. Dorothy McKeegan from the University of Glasgow will discuss what the ethical obligations are of meeting an animal’s welfare needs, and we will explore some of the various welfare standards that exist.
WEEK 5: This is the last week of the Chicken Behaviour and Welfare course, you are almost at the finish line… During this week, we will consider the welfare of layer hens and broiler (meat) chickens, from hatch to slaughter, particularly in common commercial systems.
Why Take This Course
- Advantage of Course: The course gives you Introduction to Animal Behaviour: Domestication, Behaviour Development and Learning, the Senses.
- Certificate: If you pay for this course your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page – from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.
Learning Outcomes
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 behavioral and physiological means
- Understand common welfare problems of chickens
Instructors
Victoria Sandilands: She is a senior scientist, Avian Science Research Centre, SRUC
Suggested Reading
This free online course for anyone interested in raising chickens or working in poultry science
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You can also join if you are interested “Dog Emotion and Cognition” free online course.
Conclusion
- After completing the course you will get knowledge Animal Behavior: Domestication, Behaviour Development and Learning, the Senses. They will consider what makes a domestic animal, how behaviour develops in the chicken from before hatching and beyond, different types of learning and the senses.
- Your certificate provides a detailed transcript of what you’ve learned. This includes how long you spent studying the course and your average test score. The Certificate and transcript give you evidence to show during job or university applications, or appraisals.
Detailed Information
For more information about the course, you can check the given link:
