Hens and their chicks sadly suffer in all egg systems.
When a layer hen’s exhausted body slows in egg production, she is considered ‘spent’ and sent to slaughter. To replace ‘spent’ hens, millions of chicks are hatched yearly, of which roughly half are male chicks who are considered economically ‘worthless’ to the egg industry. They aren’t the same breed of chicken used for meat, and they will never lay eggs, so they are killed by maceration or gassing soon after hatching. Sadly, male chicks are discarded in all ‘production systems’; cage, barn or free range.
Hens are naturally doting mothers; when given the chance to raise their chicks, they’ll even start communicating with them while they’re still in the egg, so when they hatch, they’ll already recognise her. The female chicks bred into the egg industry are raised to be used as nothing more than egg-laying machines – they lay eggs day after day, but never get to nurture their young.
Millions of these female hens will live short lives of deprivation in the cage egg industry, confined with less space per bird than one A4-sized piece of paper, unable to even stretch their wings.
This industrial-scale system has been designed to meet the consumer demand for eggs and products that use egg as an ingredient. Fortunately, this means the power is in our hands to reduce that demand, and ultimately change the system.