Enriched colony cages replaced battery cages in the EU but continue to be debated. Understanding their welfare advantages and limitations enables informed advocacy.
Enriched colony cages represented a meaningful welfare improvement over battery cages when they replaced them across the EU, but they remain a welfare-compromised system compared to free-range alternatives. Hens can perch and have some nest box access, reducing the most acute welfare failures of battery cages, but space remains severely restricted, dustbathing on adequate substrate is impossible, and the full behavioral repertoire of the laying hen cannot be expressed. They are a step in the right direction that should not be treated as the destination.