Michele Alley-Grub on Cage-Free Eggs

Thursday’s Rare Glimpse Inside a "Free-Range" Egg Facility, which essentially details the lack of difference between two free-range (including one organic) egg facilities and factory farms, brought me several e-mails thanking me for posting it. Prego.

But it also brought Phil Westwood, who commented:

There are some genuine ‘free range’ farms around, and farmers who care about the animals on their farms. Have a look at our website wwww.freeranger.com.au. We have visits from environmental groups, students, farmer organisations and many others to see the way we run our property.

I thought about crafting a cheeky response with the words "happy eggs" in it, but I refrained, taking my own advice to see the Buddha or the Christ in the eyes of every person (and remember, I’m an atheist). Fortunately, Michele Alley-Grub of Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary submitted the following comment, which I thought was so important that it’s today’s blog.

Here it is:

No matter where the egg production facility is, or what the ‘visible to the public ‘conditions are, the egg-laying hens are obtained from the same hatcheries that kill the baby rooster chicks at only one day old. If this "free-range" farm hatches its own chicks, two important questions still remain.

1. What happens to ALL of the male chicks – not just few token roosters – ALL of them?

2. What happens to the hens when they are no longer laying enough eggs for this facility to be profitable?

If the spent hens and ALL roosters were allowed to live out their lives until they died a natural death – chickens can live well over a decade – then that farm would soon have thousands of "spent" hens and roosters to care for. Obviously, the lifelong care of all of those birds, at all stages of a natural life span, would cut severely into any profits made by selling the eggs of younger hens.

So what happens to all of the boys? And what happens to all of the spent hens? Hens are generally considered spent by egg-laying facilities at one to two years – meaning, the farm then has to provide predator-proof shelter, food, veterinary care, etc. for that same hen, for another decade. The roosters will require dozens of separate yards, predator-proof shelters, food, vet care, etc. for their entire lives. In order to make a profit, the numbers simply don’t add up unless the inevitable killing of roosters and spent hens is occurring.

Anyone care to respond? Anyone . . . anyone .  .  . Bueller . . . Bueller?