A new initiative aimed at improving the welfare of laying hens gives insights into the strange way that the egg industry conceives of hen welfare. The British Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT) and British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA) are collaborating to encourage people to buy a range of egg sizes instead of only large or very large ones, which have become more popular than small and medium-sized eggs. Laying large eggs can be painful and dangerous to the hens.

Jane Osgathorp of BHWT told ITV News: “If a hen is laying a large egg every single day and some of these are laying now extra-large eggs, that might have internal problems for the hen. Sometimes the eggs don't go through the system properly, sometimes the hen gets prolapse, all of these things are poor consequences and there are health detriments to the hen for this and sometimes the hen will die because of these problems.”

A growing preference for larger eggs, encouraged by their prevalence in baking recipes, has meant that some farmers try to produce more of them, to the potential detriment of the laying hens, and retailers have been stocking more large eggs and fewer medium and small eggs. Genetics play a big role in egg size, but the type and amount of food fed to hens can also have an effect.

With around 42 million hens in the UK producing 11.3 billion eggs each year, that’s potentially a vast number of hens being made to lay larger eggs than is safe or comfortable for them. Founder of BHWT Jane Howorth said: “Eating a range of egg sizes is an easy way for consumers to support the best possible welfare for hens.” Is this really the answer?

Wild chickens will lay about a dozen eggs a year, but modern farmed hens have been selectively bred to lay around 300 eggs a year. This has serious health impacts for the hens, as it depletes their store of calcium, causing brittle bones and fractures. Hens will continue to be put under this physical stress as demand for eggs keeps growing; consumption has grown on average by 260 million eggs a year since 2006, with individual consumption having gone from 171 eggs per person per year to 197 eggs per person per year between 2004 and 2019.

The conditions in which hens are kept are still hugely problematic as well. While the free-range egg market is growing, a significant number of hens in the UK are still kept in cages, with 42 per cent of the total egg market (retail, food services and food manufacturing) coming from caged hens.

This is why focusing on the size of eggs without also focusing on the enormous amount being laid is, at best, a half-measure when it comes to improving the welfare of laying hens. It isn’t surprising that BFREPA, as an egg industry association, would encourage changes in the types of eggs that people buy without encouraging them to eat fewer eggs. But BHWT is a charity that rescues and rehomes around 60,000 hens a year from the egg industry. Why, despite the wonderful work it does for hens, does it only support free-range egg farmers rather than encouraging people not to eat so many eggs?

One answer can be found among its Corporate Partners, which include the Happy Egg Co, Britain’s largest free-range egg company. Three suppliers to the Happy Egg Co were only recently found by PETA to be keeping thousands of hens packed in overcrowded sheds, with dead hens left to rot on the ground and clear signs that hens’ beaks had been trimmed. 

The farms are approved by RSPCA Assured, which suspended them from the scheme after PETA’s investigation, only to lift the suspension once it was satisfied that the hens were being looked after properly. Some animal welfare experts and activists have questioned the transparency around how RSPCA Assured handles breaches of welfare standards on its certified farms, and how the scheme entangles the RSPCA with animal farming industries which, by their very nature, will never be able to do what is in the animals’ best interests.

What this shows is that animal charities, with ties to companies that make a profit from exploiting animals, hobble themselves in being able to advocate for animals with as much force and energy as they should. So we’ll say what they won’t: if people really care about the welfare of laying hens, they should leave eggs out of their shopping baskets, no matter their size.

Claire Hamlett is a freelance journalist, writer and regular contributor at Surge. Based in Oxford, UK, Claire tells stories that challenge systemic exploitation of and disregard for animals and the environment and that point to a better way of doing things.

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