Not forgetting the broiler chickens - buy free range and sign up to the Chicken Out campaign

So what egg-zactly are battery hens?

You know the large brown eggs you get for approx 99p for 12 or 15 in Asda, Tesco, Morrissons, Sainsburys etc.......?

Well these eggs come from battery hens.

They live in such close confinement they can hardly move - and in fact have approximately the size of an A4 sheet of paper to live in - or the size of a Daily Mirror or similar tabloid newspaper.

Take a look at this below - this is the:

Laying Hens - Code of Recommendations BY DEFRA Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

The welfare of laying hens is considered within a framework, elaborated by the Farm Animal Welfare Council, and known as the ‘Five Freedoms’.

These form a logical basis for the assessment of welfare within any system, together with the actions necessary to safeguard
welfare within the constraints of an efficient livestock industry.
The Five Freedoms are:

1.FREEDOM FROM HUNGER AND THIRST
- by ready access to fresh water and a diet to
maintain full health and vigour;

2.FREEDOM FROM DISCOMFORT
- by providing an appropriate environment
including shelter and a comfortable resting
area;

3.FREEDOM FROM PAIN, INJURY OR
DISEASE
- by prevention or rapid diagnosis and
treatment;

4.FREEDOM TO EXPRESS NORMAL
BEHAVIOUR
- by providing sufficient space, proper facilities
and company of the animals’ own kind;

5.FREEDOM FROM FEAR AND DISTRESS
- by ensuring conditions and treatment to
avoid mental suffering.

What about this ex battery hen above for instance - does it look like she did not endure mental suffering and distress?

So what are DEFRA doing to ensure their recommendations are instigated?

Nothing as far as I can see.

What about point 2. FREEDOM FROM DISCOMFORT, by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable nesting area.

Battery hens might have a roof over their heads but they DO NOT have a comfortable nesting area. They sleep in their cages on wire - no solid floor and NO PERCHES.

What about point 5. FREEDOM FROM FEAR AND DISTRESS, by ensuring conditions and treatment to avoid mental suffering.

Hens may not be the brightest birds in the world, but they do feel distress and pain and they have natural foraging instincts - so is being cooped up in a 20 inch crate not having anything else to do but eat and drink not mental suffering? I would challenge anyone who said it was not.

These battery hens below have just been rescued from slaughter in January 2008 - see how poor their feathering and condition is.

70% of eggs produced for the UK market come from battery hens, and these battery hens do not lay many more eggs per annum than a free range hen.

So why do it?

The hens below on this page have been out of the battery farm for a few months - look how different they look, foraging about and with good feathering now.

How do they become battery hens?

They are bred purely for the purpose of maximum egg laying.

Hybrids - cross between 2 breeds.

So the industry gets the best from both breeds, good egg layers, and sexable at hatching.

The young cockerels are 'dispatched' at a couple of days by being gassed or thrown live into a large mincer which kills them instantly, quick but horrific. Are we as a civilised country (or supposed to be) actually happy with this means of death for so many defenceless innocent chicks? No-one wants the cockerels.

See the photo below of all the day old cockerel chicks which are on the conveyor belt to death. Straight down into the mincing machine. This is what happens, so the consumer can buy CHEAP EGGS FROM BATTERY HENS.

Click on the photo and take a look at Compassion In World Farming and see the video.

Compassion In World Farming needs your support. The chickens, cockerels and other farm animals need your support.

The young hens are kept intensively until they are approx 18-20 weeks - near egg laying age. They are then transferred into the 'battery farms'.

It is here they spend the next 12 months - cooped up in an A4 size sheet of paper space.

No room to turn round, nowhere to go, nothing to do, no natural light, fed high protein food with so many additives - to prevent bacterial infection, worms, to get good yolk colour etc, etc...

The food and water is constantly in front of them and they have nothing else to do but eat and lay eggs.

No perches, they sleep in their wire crates.

They have false or extended daylight hours by keeping the lights on for much of the day to encourage them to lay.

Then What?

Well at 18 months old they are past their maximum producing egg laying days for the industry, so they are sent off to be slaughtered.

Here they are strung upside down on a conveyor belt and pass an electric saw - and off falls their heads.

Nice eh?

Did you know that 18 months old is very young for a hen? Most hens can and do live for up to 10 years or more - so 18 months is nothing at all - but because they spend approx 18 hours of their days for 18 months of their lives under false lighting to stimulate them into laying more eggs, they are spent out of eggs for mass production.

Battery cages are due to be banned in January 2012 across the EU, but due to lobbying from the poultry industry the farmers may still be allowed to use battery cages, called 'enriched cages'.

The Battery Hen Welfare Trust 'rescue' some of these hens.

They take orders from willing members of the public who may want to give a home to the unfortunate hens.

Some farms allow the Welfare Trust to enter the day before slaughter and 'rescue' how many hens they have orders for.

These photos below are rescue battery hens.

Rescued earlier this year (2007). They arrived with hardly any feathers between them, one or two had been de-beaked. So thin you could feel their keel bone like a knife.

They do when first 'rescued' have to be kept in an enclosure as they do not know what to do literally. They do not know how to forage etc..

When we opened up the house the day after rescue, they stayed inside - scared to come out. They had never seen grass, worms, daylight or fresh air.

They now, as you can see, are mostly feathered up - some better than others and one or two have little problems, but on the whole they are a joy.

They follow me up and down the field and behave like 'proper' chickens.

So lovely to see.

So - if you feel you could give a chicken or two a good home - either contact us and we will pass on your details or contact the Battery Hen Welfare Trust who will advise you.

You can obtain further information on the politics of battery hen farming and what you can do via their web site.

And remember - next time you see large brown eggs for sale in the supermarkets at value prices - remember where they come from - spend a little extra and buy some free range eggs instead.

Visit our on-line shop for our range of quality poultry housing for sale. Photos show our own battery hens free ranging and the hen houses in the photos are our own products.

Discount given on our poultry houses which are purchased to house ex battery hens.

Please contact us.