How do industrial chickens lay?!

[heiditam]

We have seen the pictures-chickens cramped into tiny cages, not big enough for them to turn around. They have to be debeaked so they don't fight. Only a cage for a bottom, nothing soft under the fanny. Yet there are eggs. ??????

It truly baffles me. From my brief experience with chickens, I understand that they will lay only when things are 'just right.' They skip if stressed. My girls needed their nests with some more privacy and straw instead of chips before they laid regularly. And I know that most chicken owners will tell you that stress=few eggs.

So what gives--how in the world do these big operations with super crazy stressful set ups have chickens that are actually laying?!

 

[azygous]

Just as meat chickens are bred to be big and fat so they can be slaughtered at 6 weeks, so are commercial laying hens of a very few special breeds that are bred to be laying machines. Of course, they have lights on around the clock so their eggs are rolling out of them like gumballs out of a machine.

On the other hand, our laying hens are made up of heritage breeds, and fancy breeds, and friendly breeds on top of everything. They're bred to be spoiled. The eggs are a bonus.