What Are Cage-Free Eggs? The difference between cage-free and free range

There are so many to choose from, each with different standards for raising hens and producing eggs. Learning what these labels mean can shed light on the various conditions that hens experience in the egg industry, and help us take steps to reduce the suffering hens experience on factory farms.

What does it mean if eggs are labeled cage-free?

“Cage-free” refers to farm environments where chickens who produce eggs—known as laying hens (or layer hens)—live in open indoor spaces. Overall, cage-free represents an increased quality of life for hens as compared with those held in cages.

Cage-free farms can vary widely. Some provide enrichment that encourages hens to perform their normal behaviors—such as dust-bathing—while others may not. Some cage-free farms keep hens in crowded conditions, which can impinge upon their ability to engage in natural behaviors. Generally, cage-free farms are windowless and provide artificial rather than natural light.

Although they don’t always fully support hens’ natural behaviors, cage-free facilities overwhelmingly spare hens from having to endure the intense physical and mental anguish that comes with spending the majority of their lives in cramped wire cages, with a space no larger than a sheet of paper per bird. By one estimate, on average, thousands of hours of pain are prevented for each hen raised in a cage-free compared to a caged system.

The importance of eliminating cages

The elimination of battery cages represents a crucial step in reducing the most extreme forms of suffering. When hens are moved from battery cages to cage-free systems, they’re spared from horrific environments that prevent them from performing natural behaviors like walking, spreading their wings, and laying their eggs in nests—basic freedoms that are completely denied to hens in battery cages. This transition spares millions of sensitive, intelligent beings from the most intensive confinement used in animal agriculture today.

What is the difference between caged eggs and cage-free eggs?

Battery cages represent some of the most intense forms of confinement any animal endures on factory farms. These small, wire cages can house four to ten hens each and are only about 15 inches in height. They get their name because they can be stacked on top of each other, forming columns that can be upwards of eight cages high, resembling a battery.

Most notably, battery cages are small. The United Egg Producers standards require each bird to be given a minimum of just 67 square inches of space, which amounts to about the same area as a piece of lined paper. Birds can’t freely run, jump, or even fully stretch their wings without hitting the sides of the cage or another bird. A study from The Humane Society of The United States confirmed that the stress of cage confinement leads to serious physical and psychological risks for chickens, including severe osteoporosis from not being able to exercise properly, and abnormal behaviors such as feather pecking.

The evidence is clear: cage confinement is animal cruelty. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, as more consumers become aware of the cruelty of intensive confinement, they’re demanding cage-free eggs—eggs that come from chickens in alternative housing systems that don’t make use of battery cages and, instead, allow chickens to move more freely in an open barn environment.

How are cage-free eggs produced?

Cage-free egg production, and most egg production, begins in hatcheries, where thousands of chicks are hatched at the same time.

At only a few hours old, chicks are “sexed,” which means they’re sorted into males and females—with drastically different fates. Deemed unnecessary by the egg industry, because they can’t lay eggs themselves, male chicks are often killed as waste products, either by gassing or maceration—a process where chicks are crushed or shredded to death instantly while still conscious.

Female chicks, by contrast, go on to be raised for a lifetime of laying eggs. Because the stressful conditions they’ll endure as egg-laying hens often leads to abnormal pecking behaviors, female chicks usually endure a procedure that removes a portion of their beak. This process is known as “beak trimming” and sometimes “debeaking.” Notably, some production systems and animal welfare certification schemes prevent beak trimming. The female chicks then travel to grow-out barns for a few weeks—usually about 16—until they mature, at which point the young birds (known within the industry as “pullets”) are sent to the production system (whether caged, cage-free, free-range, or pasture), where they’ll spend the remainder of their shortened lives.

The egg industry has selectively bred commercial laying hens to produce high volumes of eggs, often to the tune of 300 eggs per year. This is an enormous amount when compared with the number of eggs an ancestral hen in the wild would lay each year: around a dozen. Industrial farming pushes hens’ bodies beyond the limit of what’s natural. On some farms, the laying hens may be starved for a period of time to enforce molting—this extends the egg-laying cycle, so the hens continue to produce a high number of eggs. When egg production begins to decline, laying hens are removed from the system and sent to slaughter, usually when they’re 75 to 110 weeks old. The exact age of slaughter depends on whether or not the flock has endured forced molting.

Pros and cons of cage-free eggs

Pros of cage-free eggs

Cage systems represent some of the worst cruelty in egg production. Within battery cages, hens are crowded together, with little space for them to exercise properly, rest undisturbed, or perform their normal behaviors—they can’t even fully stretch out their wings. When given the opportunity, hens are very active and spend the majority of their time foraging and exploring their environment. Cage-free systems provide hens with more space to exercise and opportunity to perform their normal behaviors—they can stretch out their wings and freely explore their environment.

There is a wide variety of cage-free systems, with some providing better conditions for laying hens than others. For example, some may provide more space, environmental enrichments encouraging hens to dust-bathe and forage, and well-maintained litter. Some farms provide natural light and fresh air by providing verandas, or access to the outdoors.

Cons of cage-free eggs

Although cage-free eggs are superior to eggs produced in battery cages, cage-free setups nonetheless can have negative consequences for animals. USDA cage-free standards only require that facilities don’t keep hens in battery cages. So, even in cage-free facilities, hens may still spend a majority of their lives in dark, windowless sheds—a far cry from the wooded areas that chickens prefer to live in. Artificial lighting manipulates the hens’ laying cycle, as do farming practices like forced molting, which starves hens in order to force their bodies to produce more eggs.

And, these standards don’t necessarily spare chickens from other forms of egg industry cruelty. Chicks may still be beak trimmed, and male chicks are generally killed within hours of being born. Ultimately, the majority of cage-free production still happens on factory farms.

What is the difference between cage-free and free-range eggs?

Free-range eggs are a further improvement from cage-free eggs in terms of welfare potential. Free-range systems protect hens from confinement in a cage, but what free-range looks like can vary. Different certification programs in the US have different requirements for what qualifies as free-range. The organization FoodPrint provides detailed descriptions of many of the most popular egg labels in stores.

Across the board, free-range means cage-free, with the additional requirement that hens are given some access to the outdoors—which provides additional freedom of movement and interesting spaces for the birds. However, the outdoor requirements can differ between certification programs. Sometimes the outdoor area is so small that few hens can spend any real time there, while other labels mandate minimum outdoor space requirements per hen and require hens to be given multiple hours of outdoor access each day. Some free-range labels allow beak trimming while others do not.

What are pasture-raised eggs?

Pasture-raised eggs generally come from hens who are allowed to spend many hours of each day outdoors. Many pasture-raised certifications require farms to cover fields with vegetation, keep hens at low stocking densities (to combat overcrowding), and provide hens with features like nest boxes and perches. Pasture-raised often means no beak trimming or forced molting is permitted.

Some pasture-raised farms employ mobile coops, where chickens live in small coops that move to different locations around farm fields, enabling chickens to feed on insects and other foraged foods as they provide natural fertilization to fields. Out of all the egg systems—caged, cage-free, free-range—pasture-raised has the potential to give hens the most freedom to be themselves, bathing in the dust, foraging for insects, and spreading their wings.

What are organic eggs?

Organic labels overlap with labels that indicate the type of housing a chicken lived in. Whether or not certain eggs are “organic” is specifically governed by the USDA's National Organic Program. Organic eggs must come from “uncaged hens that are free to roam in their houses and have access to the outdoors,” so cage-free, free-range, and pasture-raised eggs can also be organic, but caged eggs can’t The hens are fed an organic diet of feed produced without conventional pesticides or fertilizers. However, the organic label doesn’t provide any specific requirements regarding the hen’s access to outdoor space.

Are there egg-labeling requirements?

The USDA has seven basic requirements for labeling egg products. However, these requirements exist to provide basic information on the manufacturer, nutrition facts, weight, and ingredients—there are no officially required animal welfare labels, including "cage-free," "free-range," or "pasture-raised." Egg producers can independently seek out certifications for animal welfare labels, but they don’t have to be listed on the package.

What do animal welfare certifications on egg cartons mean?

All animal welfare certification programs are not created equal. Each label has different criteria. For a deeper dive on major labels, an organization called FoodPrint has created a handy tool to help navigate all the nuances of these labels, ranging from habitat conservation to animal welfare to worker safety.

Below are five major animal welfare certification programs that commonly appear on grocery store shelves, and brief overviews of what each one entails for layer hen welfare.

Animal Welfare Approved

Animal Welfare Approved is a label run by A Greener World: an independent, non-profit farm certification program that maintains a portfolio of farm certifications including Certified Grassfed, Certified Non-GMO, and Salmon Welfare certifications. The Animal Welfare Approved label guarantees that animals were pasture-raised throughout their lives, and looks out for sustainability and other welfare issues as well. A list of Animal Welfare Approved eggs can be found here.

Certified Humane

Run by Humane Farm Animal Care, a non-profit certification organization, the Certified Humane label ensures that animals are not kept in cages, crates, or other highly confined spaces. The label also ensures that animals are never fed antibiotics, growth hormones, or feed that contains animal by-products. Regarding egg production, laying hens must be cage-free and have access to dust-bathing areas, perches, and nest boxes, and forced molting is not allowed. However, the Certified Humane label does allow for beak trimming. Certified Humane labeled eggs can be cage-free, free-range, or pasture-raised.

American Humane Approved

American Humane Certified standards are much closer to industrial practices than the standards of other humane certifications. The label certifies egg production facilities that are cage-free, free-range, and pasture-raised. And while other certifying groups require complete compliance with their standards, American Humane requires only that its clients achieve 85% of the total points possible for award during an audit.

Food Alliance Certified

Food Alliance is a non-profit organization that runs a voluntary certification program for producers and companies keen on embracing transparency, traceability, and environmental and social responsibility. Through a third-party audit process, animal agriculture companies must abide by certain standards to obtain certification, including wildlife conservation, integrated pest management, fair working conditions, and soil and water conservation. Egg producers must implement biodiverse pasture management; provide hens with perches, nest boxes, and outdoor access; and prohibit beak trimming.

United Egg Producers Certified

Sometimes last is, in fact, least. The United Egg Producers certification allows for caged housing—along with beak trimming, forced molting, zero access to outdoors, and lack of natural light requirements that accompany life in cages for layer hens. Permitting caged housing makes this label the least compatible with hen welfare out of all the certifications explored in this article. Buyer beware.

Is eating eggs cruel to chickens?

Although chickens in the egg industry live longer than their counterparts in the meat industry, they can still endure countless forms of routine abuse in factory farms—like beak trimming and weeks of forced starvation at a time for forced molting.

Some labels on egg packaging may be misleading in terms of their animal welfare benefits. For example, terms such as “humane” or “ethically sourced” have no legal definition. The different animal welfare certifications that appear on packaging also have different criteria and therefore impact for animal welfare—which means it’s important to learn about these different labels before making purchasing decisions. Beyond learning about and making purchasing decisions based on animal welfare certifications, leaving eggs off of your plate and opting for plant-based alternatives is a great way to guarantee that your buying choices don’t unintentionally support these cruel factory farm practices.

How are egg-laying hens treated?

Different facilities have varying standards for how they treat egg-laying hens. However, a vast majority of the US egg supply comes from hens in factory farms, and a majority of these factory farms still force hens to endure life in a battery cage.

But, as more consumers learn about the conditions that egg-laying hens must suffer through, they’re demanding that companies stop supporting cruel factory farm practices and make the switch to cage-free. Food manufacturers, restaurants, hotels, and foodservice providers across the US and around the world have pledged to eliminate cages from their supply chains, improving the lives of egg-laying hens.

How can I help?

Chickens deserve better than life in a cage. Although cage-free systems still have drawbacks, eliminating cages spares egg-laying hens from the worst forms of physical and psychological harm that they experience in intensive confinement. Together, we can demand that even more companies stop supporting cruel battery cages, and build a future where no chicken has to suffer through life in a cage.