Statistics

• 2.4 million battery hens are farmed each year

• 95% of all layer hens are battery hens

• They produce over 60 million dozen eggs per year

• People consume 200 eggs on average per year

• There are approximately 130 egg producers in New Zealand

• 20% of these account for 50% of the total egg production

• Due to selective breeding each hen lays about 310 eggs per year

• Her wild ancestor, the junglefowl, would lay 10 to 20 eggs per year

The battery cage

• Each bird has just 450 sq cm of living space (less space than an A4 sheet)

• The wire (sometimes plastic) floor is sloped to allow the eggs to roll forward for easy collection

• A battery hen can’t peck and scratch or dust bathe

• She can’t walk

• She can’t even stretch her wings

• She is denied fresh air and sunlight

Inflicted cruelty

• Most battery hens are debeaked when they are just five days old

• Debeaking involves searing off the end of a chicken’s beak with a red-hot-blade

• This procedure is carried out to reduce the effects of cannibalism, caused by overcrowding and stressful living conditions

• Debeaking can cause lifelong pain, and impair the hen’s ability to eat normally

• Some hens have their middle toe cut off to minimise foot injuries

• Because male birds don’t lay eggs, 50% of all one-day-old chicks are killed by gassing or instantaneous fragmentation

Welfare problems

• Stress and boredom from the barren and cramped living environment

• Foot and claw problems due to the sloping wire floor

• Loss of feather and skin damage from rubbing against the cage and pecking from cage-mates

• Fatty liver haemorrhagic syndrome can occur due to stress and lack of exercise, causing death from rupture of the liver

• Bone weakness (osteoporosis), due to lack of exercise and depleted calcium levels resulting from the unnaturally high number of eggs laid – eggshells are made of calcium and a hen now lays 310 eggs per year, instead of the normal 10 – 20

Slaughter

• Battery hens are killed at 18 months

• Their normal life span is 1—15 years

• Overseas research shows that battery hens often have broken bones by the time they are killed, due to weak bones combined with rough handling during transportation

• Their meat is used for pet food and food flavouring

Alternatives

Free range – the hens have access to the outdoors 24 hours a day, with indoor areas for egg laying and perching space. Most of the hens’ natural behavioural needs are met as they can dust bathe, peck and scratch, and forage for food outside in a spacious natural environment. Some free-range farmers trim their hens’ beaks. Free-range hens are killed at 18 months.

Barn - the hens are all housed indoors at around 7 birds per square metre, with no access to the outdoors. They are able to dust bathe, peck and scratch, and forage for food on the floor of the barn, which is covered with wood shavings. The hens lay eggs in nesting boxes and sleep on a raised, slatted platform. Most barn hens are beak trimmed, and are killed at 18 months.

In other countries
• Switzerland banned the battery cage in 1992
• The European Union will phase out the battery hen cage by 2012