Agroforestry chickens and hens: development of a poultry silvopastoral systemCurrently, chicken meat and eggs are among the most consumed protein sources. In the last forty years this was the productive sector that grew the most compared to other products of animal origin. However, industrial-scale poultry farming has been disapproved by the most demanding consumers about animal welfare. On the other hand, it is possible to think of combining the creation of these birds with agricultural and forestry areas to develop a new system of free breeding, which generates jobs, income, and improvements in the lives of chickens, meeting the current market demand for more ethical products. and sustainable. The objective of this work was to develop a differentiated system for aviculture, bringing these birds closer to their original environment, inserting them in a silvopastoral system (SSP), whose structure resembles a forest. A rubber plantation from ESALQ-USP, with shading-tolerant weeds, was used for this experiment. It was evaluated the contribution of pasture consumption in the feeding of the chickens, as a complementary way to the feed (which is equivalent to ~70% of the final cost in the creation of birds) and the effects of the supply of whole grains to the animals, usual practice among the familiar farmers to reduce breeding costs. For this purpose, four treatments were determined: three with access to agroforestry paddocks differing by the diet provided (feed, whole grains of corn or sorghum) and, as a control, birds confined in a shed and fed with mash feed. The management used was rotational grazing and mobile chicken coop. Each treatment had 25 Pescoço Pelado (Label Rouge) lineage birds and five paddocks for pasture rotation.Pasture consumption, zootechnical performance, animal welfare and meat quality were evaluated. This dissertation also reports the pilot experiment with laying hens in a silvopastoral system. Forage consumption by birds had a greater impact on pasture supply in winter than in spring. It was estimated that the average weekly consumption of dry leaf matter in winter was 19.3 g/m² and in spring 6.7 g/m², differing statistically between seasons (p<0.05). In terms of meat production, there were significant differences in final live weight (average values: 2,70 kg -SSP+feed; 2,68 kg -SSP+½ feed and ½ corn grains; 2,62 -SSP+½ feed and ½ sorghum grains and 2,76 kg -Confinement), weight gain, conversion and feed efficiency for birds fed partially with sorghum grains (T3), which presented the worst performance in relation to the others (p< 0, 05). However, the weight of the clean carcass (carcass yield with bones ~73%), thigh and drumstick showed no statistical differences between treatments (p<0.05). The natural and more active behavior was statistically superior for birds raised in SSP. The chickens fed corn grains (T2) "scratched" significantly more (p<0.001) than the other treatments, with 34% of the observations. In the confined environment (T4), the "scratch" behavior represented only 9.2% of th...