What science shows about laying hen welfare across housing systems, why cage-free transition is necessary but insufficient, and what genuine high-welfare egg production requires.
The cage-free transition in egg production represents an important but incomplete step toward genuine laying hen welfare. Removing the worst confinement conditions of battery cages addresses the most obvious welfare failure, but cage-free systems as currently operated often have their own significant welfare problems. Keel bone fractures — now recognized as the single most widespread welfare problem in laying hen production — affect the majority of birds in virtually all commercial housing systems. Genuine welfare progress requires not just housing system changes but breed selection, stocking density management, environmental enrichment, and health monitoring that collectively address the multiple welfare challenges of intensive egg production.