Commercial laying hens are typically slaughtered after 72-80 weeks of production — a fraction of their natural lifespan — with welfare implications during both their productive life and at the end-of-life stage.
The commercial laying hen system involves two welfare endpoints that receive insufficient attention: the killing of male chicks at hatch (hundreds of millions annually, typically through maceration or gassing) and the slaughter of "spent" hens at a fraction of their natural lifespan. Male layer-breed chicks cannot lay eggs and grow too slowly for meat production — their lives have no commercial value in conventional systems. In-ovo sexing technology that identifies sex before hatching allows egg disposal at a welfare-neutral stage rather than killing conscious chicks. Spent hen slaughter at 72-80 weeks affects animals that have often developed significant production-related health problems and may receive less rigorous welfare attention at slaughter than broilers due to their lower commercial value.