Free range barn hens
The Facts – Free range barn hens
Millions of hens in Australia are crammed into small cages, crowded into barns and kept in poor conditions on farms that represent themselves as “humane” and “free range”.
Wherever they are their soul purpose is laying egg after egg until they are no longer able. Grace Kelly is one of the lucky hens who escaped “free range” farming, but she has not escaped the way her body has been altered to benefit the industry she was bred for.
Laying hens are selectively bred to lay ten times more eggs than they would naturally. This places an enormous amount of strain on them and often leads to a condition called “egg-bound” whereby they are not longer able to expel eggs from their fragile bodies. The eggs rot inside of them and leads to a horrible and painful death.
Unfortunately hens at FAR have fallen victim to this common circumstance and have required surgery to remove the broken egg, pus and blood from their reproductive system.
Although Grace Kelly’s breed of hen, the jungle fowl, can live up to 16 years in the wild, their egg laying diminishes around 18 months and that’s when they are culled in commercial farms. Commercial egg laying hens (if given the opportunity) can survive in sanctuaries for 3 years or more. However, reparative surgery is normally necessary to provide the hens with a longer and healthy life.
What can you do?
While the story of millions of free range barn hens is a tragic one, there are many things you can do personally to reduce their suffering:
Learn more about our rescue hens and what we do by coming along to our free next open day
Eliminate eggs from your diet – you can easily substitute eggs in baking, or dish up a yummy tofu scramble for breakfast
Adopt a vegan diet – not only will you help barn hens, you’ll help all farm animals
