Commercial egg laying hens

Commercial laying hens are moved to laying farms just before they start laying eggs at around 18 weeks old. They're typically kept until they're 72 weeks (around 18 months) old, when egg production and quality declines. Here's more about how egg production works in the UK.

Egg production systems

Commercial laying hens are kept in one of the following types of system.

Battery cages

Barren battery cages were banned throughout Europe from 1 January 2012, but 'enriched' battery cages are still legally permitted. Battery cages now have to provide 600cm squared useable space per bird - that's less than the size of an A4 piece of paper each - and limited facilities for perching, nesting and scratching. We don't believe this meets the full needs of the birds.

Each wire cage typically houses around 80 hens. There's no limit on how high the cage tiers can be stacked.

These cage systems – both traditional and enriched – limit the hens’ ability to move around and perform natural behaviours. This can cause the birds to suffer high levels of stress and frustration. Like all animals, hens need to be active and perform natural behaviours such as walking, nesting, perching, stretching their wings, dustbathing (this is very important), scratching the ground, and foraging.

Barn systems

In barn systems, hens have freedom and space to move around within a building. Perches are provided for roosting, as well as material to dustbathe and forage in, and nest boxes. Some systems are 'multi-tier', providing additional levels to use above the ground.

Free-range

Most free-range hens on commercial farms live in buildings like the barn system, but have access to the outside through openings called 'popholes'. EU laws require that free-range hens must always have access to an outside area with adequate vegetation during the daytime.

Egg production statistics

Around 40 million commercial egg-laying hens were kept in the UK in 2022.

The proportion of eggs produced in the different systems in 2022 in the UK was:

28%* of eggs produced in battery cages
7%* in barn systems
65%* in free-range systems (of which 4% were organic systems).

*figures rounded up/down.

Consumers are buying more boxes of free-range and barn eggs, but a large proportion of eggs used as ingredients in products such as mayonnaise, cakes and sandwiches are still from hens kept in cages.

You have the power to improve the lives of hens by only buying cage-free eggs.

Please choose eggs labelled 'RSPCA Assured'. RSPCA Assured eggs are produced by cage-free hens reared on farms inspected to our strict welfare standards.

For more information on egg labelling and how to choose cage-free eggs, see Laying hen welfare and scroll down to ‘Choosing cage-free eggs’.