11/23/2023 0 Comments Caged chickensCaged hens, even “enriched” ones, are fully controlled to the last inch. “I do it so the chickens aren’t surprised when I come in.” He is not being sentimental he is just trying to ensure that they don’t get stressed. One worker is needed per 16,000 free-range hens, compared with one worker per 50,000 colony hens.Ĭuriously, he knocks on the door, before entering. ![]() “Free-range is more labour-intensive,” explains Crawley, as he takes me across to one of his huge free-range barns, or huts. Only half of all the eggs consumed in Britain are free-range or organic (which has even stricter standards of animal welfare). Many consumers may wince at the idea of “enriched cage” hens, but not at the price of their eggs. “And the supermarkets said, ’Actually, we’d better keep colony hens.’ It was very much a cost-driven thing.”Īt Tesco, half a dozen medium free-range eggs cost pounds 1.30. “But then the credit crunch came along,” Crawley says. “Each system has its good points as well as its not-so-good points.” The credit crunch came along and supermarkets said, ‘Actually, we’d better keep colony hens’Ī few years ago, it seemed all the supermarkets would join the likes of Marks & Spencer and become free-range only. “I don’t think any system is perfect,” he says. He plucks a hen from the cage and lets me inspect it closely: its feathers are glossy and its eyes are bright. His colony sheds are industrial, but along with that comes a surprisingly low level of smell and dirt - the chicken muck is taken away on a conveyor belt every two days, keeping the floors of the cage surprisingly clean. “But when you look inside the cages, I’m not saying it’s great… but the birds have space, they have a perch, they have got things to scratch on.”Ĭrawley is rightly proud of his well-run farm. It looks like a factory, your worst nightmare of an industrial intensive system,” Nicol said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He has allowed me in to inspect his farm after a leading chicken expert at the University of Bristol, professor Christine Nicol, suggested that many free-range hens were no happier than those in enriched cages. Crawley says matter of factly: “They’ve never known any different.” ![]() The hens never leave their cage, never see daylight and cannot walk more than a few feet back and forth. To my eye, this existence still looks pretty miserable. The new system allows for 13 hens in the same area. Under the old system, you were allowed to keep 18 hens in one square metre - about the size of the floor of a telephone box. The chicken muck is taken away on a conveyor belt every two daysĬolony, or “enriched cage,” used to be known as battery eggs, but the European Union last year forced all farmers to move to the higher-welfare colony system, after years of wrangling with the industry. That is because Sunrise Eggs, his family company - responsible for 2% of the 9.3 billion eggs laid in Britain every year - produces free-range as well as “colony” eggs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |