Corporate commitments to cage-free egg production have driven major changes in laying hen housing, but the transition has created new welfare issues alongside significant gains.
Cage-free systems represent genuine welfare progress: hens can walk, spread their wings, perch, and engage in natural scratching behavior that is impossible in battery cages. But the transition has revealed that simply removing cages does not automatically create good welfare. Keel bone fractures — caused by hens colliding with perches and structures when flying or jumping — are now recognized as one of the most significant welfare problems in modern laying hen production, and rates are often higher in cage-free than in caged systems. Good management matters enormously: lighting programs, stocking density, litter quality, and beak treatment policies all interact to determine whether cage-free hens genuinely experience better lives. The goal should be not just cage-free, but welfare-positive.