The global shift from battery cages to cage-free egg production represents significant welfare progress for laying hens, but the transition brings its own management challenges requiring attention.
The cage-free transition represents genuine welfare progress — hens in cage-free systems can walk, spread wings, perch, and lay eggs in nesting boxes, behaviors entirely prevented in battery cages. However, the transition is not sufficient alone. Poorly managed cage-free barns with high stocking density, poor air quality, and inadequate enrichment may not deliver much better welfare than the cages they replace. The welfare goal is not merely cage-free but genuinely enriched environments with space, complexity, and behavioral opportunities. Consumer and retailer pressure for genuine welfare improvements, not just the cage-free label, is essential to realizing the transition's potential.