Enriched colony cages replaced battery cages in the EU but remain contested on welfare grounds. Understanding their limitations helps advocates push for genuinely higher welfare standards.
Enriched colony cages represent an improvement over conventional battery cages but fall far short of meeting laying hen behavioral welfare needs. The space allowance remains insufficient for normal locomotion, the nesting areas are shared and may be inadequate in number for all hens to use simultaneously, and dustbathing on wire or plastic floors is not genuine dustbathing behavior. Hens in enriched cages show better welfare indicators than battery-caged birds but substantially worse outcomes than those in well-managed cage-free systems with litter access. The ongoing phase-out of caged systems in favor of cage-free housing, driven by corporate commitments and consumer pressure, represents the most significant welfare improvement currently underway in egg production.