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Laying Hen Behavior, Welfare Issues, and Commercial Housing Systems
In the United States, commercial laying hens will lay approximately 300 eggs in one year 1. Hens are complex animals and perform highly -motivated natural behaviors, such as scratching and pecking the ground in search of food or grit, dustbathing to remove excess oils or harmful mites, flapping and stretching their wings, and perching on structures above ground level for improved surveillance and protection from predators. Laying hens live in a social hierarchy, or pecking order, organized from dominant to more docile hens in the flock 6. Like all species, laying hens will become frustrated or bored when their ability to express their natural behaviors is restricted or denied. This causes the hens to experience stress, frustration, boredom, and poor welfare from stress.
With or without enrichments, all cages are highly restrictive, and the space and resources needed for hens to express natural behaviors are rarely available, if at all 4.
Commercial housing systems: cages
Cage confinement is regarded as one of the cruellest factory farming practices. There are two types of cages in which egg-laying hens are typically kept.
There are two main types of cages that are used across the United States and Canada, both causing poor welfare outcomes and immense suffering for birds:
Battery cages
In the 1960’s, battery cages (also called conventional housing) became the predominant housing system for commercial egg production to both maintain low cost and increase efficiency, 9 but this came at a cost for the hens. Battery cages are fully enclosed in wire mesh and often barren with only a nipple drinker and feeding tray. One battery cage can be used to house laying hens of up to 10 birds. In a battery cage, the average space allowance per bird is approximately 67 square inches (sq. in.), slightly less than a letter-size sheet of paper 10.
Nearly all welfare issues for hens result from a life spent in a battery cage. Due to the wire mesh base, hens cannot perform basic actions like dustbathing – a natural behavior that helps remove excess oils or parasites and cleans the hens’ feathers. Laying hens may still attempt to dustbathe on the wire floors of the cages, known as sham dustbathing 11. However, the wire flooring can cause serious damage to the hens, resulting in feather damage or loss.
In the United States, considerable progress has been made to move approximately 40% of U.S. laying hens into cage-free housing environments. The U.S. cage-free laying hen flock continues to increase despite supply chain and production barriers. However, progress is still needed before battery cages are fully removed from U.S. commercial egg production.
Enriched cages
Enriched cages (also called furnished or colony cages) are an alternative housing system to battery cages that provide only marginal improvements to the welfare of laying hens. Unlike battery cages, enriched cages provide more space, perching bars, nesting areas, and a solid pad with some substrate for dustbathing and scratching. However, the limited three-dimensional space and lackluster, insufficient enrichment means the laying hens’ natural behaviors are still restricted in enriched cages, causing the hens stress, frustration, boredom, and poor welfare.
Research suggests that a laying hen requires a minimum of 184 in2 to dust bathe and 440 in2 to flap their wings freely 12, much larger than the average 116in2 space per hen allotted in enriched cages. A plastic mat with substrates is installed where a small amount of feed is regularly provided to encourage the hens to dustbathe. However, the amount of substrate is limited to mitigate high dust levels in the air. In addition, each plastic dustbathing mat provides only 1.5 – 5.2 sq. in. per hen 13. Crammed laying hens may peck, interrupt, or injure other hens in the flock who are attempting to perform this socially motivated behavior simultaneously 4. Due to the lack of appropriate space and enrichment, sham-dustbathing still takes place on the wire flooring in enriched cage systems, causing the hens feather damage or loss.
Descended from red jungle fowl, laying hens naturally seek perches high up from the ground to rest at night to avoid predation. However, the lack of vertical space in enriched cages and the placement of perching bars inhibits and discourages this behavior as hens are forced to crouch while perching 12. Even the simple act of turning around is restricted for laying hens due to the limited space and high stocking density in enriched cages 14.
Enriched cages are not as common as battery cages in the United States but are predominately used in Canada. While the total number is unknown, surveyed egg producers projected that less than 1% of these systems will be utilized in the U.S. by 2025 15. However, they are rapidly becoming the new housing standard in Canada, accounting for nearly 34% of all production systems for laying hens 5. Despite over 75% of surveyed Canadian consumers disapproving of enriched cage housing 16, enriched cages continue to increase during the transition away from battery cages. Truly cage-free growth in the Canadian market continues to stall, with all cage-free systems (i.e., aviary/free run,1 free range,2 organic3) accounting for only ~18% of total laying hen production systems in Canada 5.
