In April 2005, Britain's first charity dedicated to improving the welfare standards of hens was born. Its main work is to rescue chickens with poor breeding conditions in intensive chicken farms, and let poultry breed and live in a natural state. They called for the prohibition of using traditional methods to keep pregnant sows, young beef cattle and laying hens in the narrow spaces of cubicles or box iron cages, and asked farmers to provide them with enough space to lie down, stand, and fully extend. Limbs (wings) and turn around freely. In fact, animal welfare is nothing new. The concept originated in Britain and has a history of more than 100 years.
Raising layers in chicken cages allows farmers to produce the most eggs with the least space. This feeding method can be traced back to the 1930s. It is estimated that more than 60% of the world's eggs are still produced in factory farms. But in these old-fashioned chicken cages, the activity space of each hen is even half the size of A4 paper. Chickens can not show their instincts, they cannot flap their wings, build nests, lay eggs, scratch and comb, they can only peck and pluck their feathers and attack each other.
The feeding density and feeding conditions of chickens have a significant impact on their welfare. Chickens with high feeding density may have higher mortality, more restrictions on behavior, and poor leg health. Inadequate lighting, poor ventilation and air quality in chicken houses can lead to serious welfare and health problems. Especially broilers, they are genetically selected to grow at such an abnormally fast rate that their bodies cannot keep up, often their bone density cannot support their weight.
Those caged chickens are only regarded as "egg laying machines" by humans in their lifetime. As they grow older, when their egg production begins to decline, most of them will be sent to the slaughterhouse by farmers. In their short life, they have never seen green grass or felt the feathers brushed by the wind. Imagine, let the poultry live in a big house and courtyard, play on the uneven bars, eat and drink, and be accompanied by roosters... Compared with large-scale caged hens, if the hens are raised in welfare chicken cages in welfare egg farms, the treatment of hens here can be called "paradise". Each chicken house is equipped with a spacious outdoor "playground". There is a sun rack in the yard. Hens and cocks are accompanied to bask freely in the yard. A row of neat water tanks and feeders under the eaves are arranged in turn. In the chicken cage in the house, the conveyor belt sends the eggs just laid by hens to the breeders...