The EU banned barren battery cages in 2012, transitioning laying hens to enriched colony cages, barn and free-range systems. Welfare outcomes across these systems vary substantially and ongoing reform continues.
The cage ban was a major welfare advance, but it did not solve laying hen welfare. Barn and free-range systems introduce different welfare problems - keel bone fractures from elevated perch use, feather pecking in high-density flocks, and poor ranging uptake in free-range systems. The welfare hierarchy is not as simple as 'cage is always worse than barn is always worse than free-range' - management quality, flock health, barn design and ranging infrastructure all profoundly affect outcomes. An evidence-based welfare approach focuses on measurable outcomes (bone health, feather condition, behaviour, mortality) rather than system type labels.