Laying Hen End-of-Life Welfare | Animal Welfare Hub

The welfare challenges at the end of the laying hen production cycle, including depopulation methods and the fate of spent hens.

Key Facts

Laying hens are typically slaughtered at 72-80 weeks of age when egg production declines below economic viability
Approximately 4 billion laying hens are slaughtered globally each year at the end of their productive lives
Spent hens have lower market value than broiler chickens, creating economic pressure to use lower-cost but less humane depopulation methods
Whole-house killing using controlled atmosphere gas is considered a higher-welfare alternative to manual neck dislocation for flock depopulation
Spent hen transport to processing is often more stressful than transport of table chickens due to fragility from sustained egg production
Calcium depletion from sustained laying makes spent hen bones brittle — injuries during catching and transport are common
Some progressive producers are extending laying periods and transitioning hens to slower-paced production before depopulation

Welfare Considerations

Laying hen end-of-life welfare is the least visible and least regulated part of the egg production cycle. Hens who have spent their lives providing eggs are at their most physically fragile — depleted of calcium, prone to injury, and often carrying subclinical musculoskeletal disease from years of intensive egg production. The depopulation and transport they face at the end of their lives often occurs in haste and at low cost because the economic value of the product makes any additional expense difficult to justify to producers. This is a welfare gap that certification schemes and regulatory frameworks are beginning to address but have not yet resolved at the industry scale needed.

What You Can Do

Support egg certification schemes that include end-of-life welfare requirements in their standards
Advocate for controlled atmosphere gas killing to be required for flock depopulation rather than manual methods
Ask egg producers and certification bodies about their end-of-life welfare standards for spent hens
Support research into longer laying periods and graduated production reduction that improve spent hen welfare
Encourage the development of markets for spent hen products that increase economic incentives for welfare investment at end of life