How Hens Are Housed
Healthy hens that are well cared for lay quality eggs. So along with every other ethical reason to take good care of a flock, it’s in every egg farmer’s best interest as a businessperson to make sure their hens are doing well—these birds are their livelihoods.
There are lots of different types of egg farms with different hen housing methods, but they all have one thing in common: the health and wellbeing of the flock is every egg farmer’s top priority.
A growing America
In 1900, there were about 76.3 million people living in the U.S.16 and about 40% of them lived on farms.17 Today, the total U.S. population is over 335 million18 with less than 2% of Americans living on farms.19
With a 339% increase in the U.S. population, farming has had to become much more efficient to produce the food we need. Farming practices have evolved significantly, and will never stop evolving—they must, with so many more people to feed and relatively fewer of us growing the food. Today, farming is much more technological than it used to be, and a lot of that technology is focused on preserving natural resources like land and water, while simultaneously increasing the amount of food produced.
Producing more food in an environmentally sustainable way is a big challenge. Especially when you consider that it’s got to be done economically so that farmers can continue to farm and so that people can continue to afford to buy the food that’s produced. And, with egg farmers, this all needs to be accomplished while making sure that their hens are healthy and well cared for.
Big advances in sustainability
Compared to 1960, egg farming releases significantly fewer emissions, including 71% lower greenhouse gas emissions.20 Today’s flocks use 32% less water per dozen eggs produced than in 1960, and farmers handle waste from laying hens differently than they did years ago, which has really helped minimize egg farming’s environmental footprint. Recycled manure—which contains the macronutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium that are needed for healthy soils and plant growth—is used for crop production, in many cases replacing chemical fertilizers.
The modern family egg farm
Egg farms today, like the eggs they produce, come in many varieties. 96% of egg farms in this country are family-owned businesses and many of them are multi-generational.21,22 They may be a family-owned company with one farm site or multiple farm locations. When your livelihood is passed down to you, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword. It’s your responsibility and your legacy to your own kids.
But the “red barn” pastoral image that comes to mind when people hear the word “farm” doesn’t accurately represent modern farming.
These days, there’s nearly one egg-laying hen for every American, which means more than 300 million hens.1 Although there are egg farms with much smaller flocks and modern egg farming encompasses a variety of hen housing environments, it’s not unusual to find egg farms that have more than one million birds.
Among other benefits, egg farming at scale, which means having more egg-laying hens on one farm, lowers the cost of producing each egg, which in turn keeps the cost of eggs down for the consumer. These larger egg farms have become more productive and sustainable than ever before, while maintaining a high level of care for the health and wellbeing of the birds—and they’re constantly improving.