Battery Hens

There are over 2.5 million battery hens in New Zealand; producing over 90% of New Zealand's eggs. These animals are confined to sloping wire cages in dark sheds, with little or no natural light. Virtually all of a battery hens natural behaviours are suppressed - they cannot perch, preen, or spread their wings; they will never see the sun, scratch the earth or forage for food. They are denied the opportunity to make nests, dustbathe, and engage in normal social interaction.

Many battery hens suffer extreme feather loss due to the constant rubbing of cage wire against their bodies, and pecking from other distressed hens. The sloping wire of the cage floor, combined with inability to move around, results in lame feet and deformed claws.

Battery hens are routinely de-beaked; a process where chicks have their beaks cut back with a hot blade, causing instant and chronic pain. Other procedures also include toe amputation and the killing of day-old male chicks. These chicks are either gassed, suffocated or ground alive (sometimes called maceration or instantaneous fragmentation). This practice is not confined to battery farming but extends throughout the entire egg industry, including barnlaid and free range systems.

Not surprisingly, many battery hens exhibit signs of extreme psychological distress. These include the repeated and continued pecking of other hens, cannibalism and hens attempting to make nests out of thin air.

Chickens are highly maternal, inquisitive and social animals who in natural environments will live 10-15 years. Living in small family flocks, they will spend long periods of time exploring, foraging and pecking for food. They will make nests, lie in the sun, dustbathe, fly short distances and even perch in trees.

In a factory farm the hen is treated as a machine; pumping out hundreds of eggs a year in conditions fit for no animal. There is no room for compassion in a battery farm; it is unrelenting and brutal - and it must be stopped.

Barnlaid eggs: Barnlaid eggs are factory farm eggs. While there are no cages in a barn system, there is also no sunlight, no fresh air, and no room to move around. The thousands of birds per shed mean cannibalism, bullying, de-featherment and aggression are still big problems. In Barnlaid systems both de-beaking and the killing of male chicks are routine practices.