Persuasive Text: Caged Eggs Should Be Outlawed

The living conditions of chickens are dreadful and appalling. What came first the chicken or the egg? Chicken farming is found particularly in the Southeast margin of the United States (“Factory Farm Map”). It is explained that, “chickens and hogs on factory farms have no access to the outdoors, fresh air or natural light” (“Factory Farms Map”). This exemplifies one situation of how chickens are poorly treated in the factory farms. In addition, even before the chickens are born, they are treated horribly. More than 125,000 to one million hens can be living in the same factory together (Hobson). Along with crowded living spaces, these animals suffer being “docked,” which means they are declawed and stripped of all teeth (Hobson). This shows how bad the conditions

In terms of the animal welfare, the cage-free system treats hens in a more humane manner and ensures them a life with more freedom. An overwhelming majority of hens are limited in the conventional cages, where they each can share only 67 square inches of the cage space.2 67 square inches cannot even compare with a piece of letter-size paper which takes up about 93.5 square inches. Such tiny space is not enough for hens to spread their wings, let alone make nests or perch. The conventional system shows a lack of certain humanity. Unlike the conventional system, the cage-free system provides more spacious room for hens, where they are able to walk around within a certain range, to spread their

Layers practically spent their youth to maturity confined in cages no bigger than their bodies. The cages are densely packed next and on top of one another. Laying hens are frequently starved to maximize their eggs production. The goal is to maximize production with amount of effort. The way I see it: It is like life in prison for those hens. They cannot move and even flap their wings. Living in overcrowded area, it is a natural tendency for the birds to peck at each other. To solve that problem, new born chicks will get part of their top beaks cut off without any painkillers. Many chicks experience pain and unable eat for days. When hens can no longer produce eggs, they are killed and sent elsewhere. Why would one kill those hens? Can we still use them for

These cages are stacked on top of each other that are five rows high. This means that the hens cannot perch, preen, roost, scratch, dust breathe or spread their wings. Due to the very limited space in these cages, the hens cannot fulfil their natural instincts. They are unable to lay their eggs in nests, leaving them desperate and willing to do anything, even laying them in other decaying carcases. Doesn’t it make you feel a little bit sick in the stomach knowing that these are the eggs that we eat daily? Cannibalism is very common with caged eggs. The hens get stressed and overcrowded and start to peck at each other. The owners try to prevent this by using a heated blade to cut half of their upper beak and one third of the lower. This leaves multiple hens dying from ulcers, infections and starvation. The confinement of these cages is ridiculous! Hens bones are becoming extremely brittle due to the over production of the eggs. Every Autumn is when the hens have their usual moult season. This is where the hens stop laying for 2-3 months, but this definitely isn’t the case with caged eggs. The growers force starve the hens to bring them back into laying eggs quicker. It isn’t

One of the key things to assess laying hens welfare is to look at the housing environment they have been grown up in. First of all, the space availability should be considered. If hens do not have enough space to live in, the environment is definitely not increasing

If a bird was uncomfortable it would not want to lay eggs, which is not the case. Because of naïve viewers of the documentary there is a push for better living conditions for laying chickens. There is also a risk of boycotting certain types of eggs, or even all eggs in general. This would be very terrible for the egg industry as a whole, from the farmers all the way to the grocery stores. How can a problem such as this be resolved? There are a few new guidelines as far as barns and the size of chicken cages that are being enforced to better the quality of life for the chickens. This means the ages will have more space per bird in each cage, as well as dust baths.

They do need lots of exercise so a bigger than standard cage would be wanted to raise them, as compared to other cage raised birds. As an example a cage size of 24x24x36 inches is advocated for a breeding pair.

In Brazil, most of the country’s eggs are a product of birds who never see sunlight or roam outside. Instead, they spend their entire lives living in battery cages, which are cages arranged in lines and columns, used as housing systems. These birds are not able to exercise, walk, or simply stretch their wings due to the cages being so overcrowded. In Brazil, at any given time, there are more than 70 million hens living in these conditions. They endure these horrible conditions for about one and a half years, at which point their egg productivity begins to decline and they are sent to be slaughtered for meat production (“Intensive Confinement of Farm Animals in Brazil” 1). Pigs also suffer in intensive confinement production systems. Nearly

The behavior of a chicken varies a lot depending on the breed and type of the chicken for instance broilers and egg layers are very different in behavior. Broilers consume about nine pounds of food before they get to be full sized, while it takes seventeen pounds of food for egg layers to become full sized. Broilers need to be either caged or penned up in order for them to gain weight and have access to food at all times. But egg layers produce more eggs when they are free range because

Colony cages fail to meet the welfare of Hens and don't provide them with the sufficient space they need. They’re illegal

(1.3 kg). Eggs are laid in a communal nest called a dump nest, which can hold about 60 eggs at one time. Males, as well as females, sit on the eggs until they hatch, which can take 42 to 46 days. Ostrich offspring are larger than any other bird baby. At birth, chicks can be as big as chickens. The males and females share the responsibility of taking care of the young, according to the San Diego Zoo. During an attack, the male tries to lure the predator away from the chicks while they run for cover with the female. By six months, a chick is almost at its full-grown height; at 3 or 4 years, it will reach maturity. An ostrich can live 50 to 75

The sooner you can get the chicks the better, but in the meantime you can encourage the broody hen to stay broody by keeping a calm and private nesting spot for her. Once you receive your chicks, be sure to have a temporary brooder set up and allow the chicks to become acclimated. We would not recommend attempting to have her adopt chicks older than a week of age. We hatch and ship our chicks on the same day so by time you would receive them they are only 24-72 hours old, depending when you receive them from the day they are shipped. (Check out our tips for their arrival Linked Here.)

We simulated the response of broiler breeder hens in function of lighting programmes during the growth period.

Egg weights were measured monthly (Table 7-4) and no significant differences were seen. Feed intake was measured monthly and calculated on a per bird/day basis (Table 7-5), though no differences were seen throughout the study. Additionally, mean feed conversion as kg feed consumed per dozen eggs (Table 7-6) and kg feed consumed/kg eggs produced per bird (Table 7-7) were calculated, though again, no differences were seen between treatments. Deaton et al. (1988) found similar results to the current study by feeding laying hens mash diets including either roller mill (1,343 – 1,501µm GMD) or hammer mill (814 – 873µm GMD) ground corn and determined this range in PS did not influence laying hen percent egg production, BW, egg weight, FI, FC, eggshell breaking strength or percent mortality.

Several physiological, biochemical, nutritional, structural and morphological studies have been carried on avian eggs, and most of these have utilized the egg of the domestic chicken. (1) Due to its availability and commercial importance as a nutritious food for human consumption, avian eggs can feasibly be studied in vitro and in vivo. Egg proteins are nutritionally complete with a great balance of essential amino acids, which are demanded to build and to repair the cells in muscles and other body organs. (2) Moreover, the egg contains high quantity of nutrients such as fatty acid, minerals like iron, calcium phosphorus, zinc, and vitamins A, B2, B6, B12, D, E, and K. (3)