The shift from battery to cage-free egg production is underway globally. Understanding what cage-free does and does not improve helps advocates push for further welfare advances.
Cage-free production removes the wire cage but does not automatically improve welfare. Large cage-free barns with thousands of hens can have higher rates of feather pecking, keel bone fractures, and mortality than well-managed enriched cage systems. The key welfare improvements from cage-free are the ability to perch, dust bathe on litter, and move freely — important natural behaviours. The key remaining welfare problems are keel bone fractures (a welfare crisis requiring genetic and management solutions), feather pecking in large flocks, and the conditions of male chick culling at the hatchery that cage-free transitions do not address. The full welfare story of an egg includes the hatchery, rearing, and laying stages.