Osteoporotic bone fractures are a major welfare problem for laying hens, with the physiological demands of egg production depleting calcium from the skeleton and causing painful breaks.
Laying hens with fractures experience significant pain that impairs standing, accessing food and water, and competing with flock-mates. The pain is often invisible because hens mask signs of weakness as a predator avoidance strategy. Fractures during catching and transport at end-of-lay represent the accumulated welfare cost of a life of high production on an increasingly fragile skeleton. Higher-welfare systems including exercise opportunities, appropriate calcium nutrition, and gentle catching and transport procedures are the primary interventions.