The transition from battery cages to cage-free systems represents a genuine welfare advance for laying hens, but cage-free welfare outcomes vary enormously based on system design and management.
The welfare case for cage-free eggs is strong but not unconditional. Well-managed cage-free barn systems provide laying hens with the space to express natural behaviours — wing-flapping, dustbathing, perching, foraging — that enriched cages structurally prevent. The welfare benefit is real and significant. But cage-free systems carry higher risks of feather pecking and mortality if poorly managed. The key welfare determinant in cage-free systems is stockpersonship quality and system design, not simply the presence of open space. The best cage-free operations dramatically outperform enriched cages on welfare outcomes; the worst may not.