Batery hens are the hens that lay eggs for the stores etc. They are usually kept in small cages with multiple hens. They generally don't have any room to move and are processed for food after so many months. They generally have a very crappy existance. Some will hardly have feathers or be able to walk very much until they can get out and move around.
Yeah, it's part of the reason that I got chickens in the first place. I love eggs lots, but don't want to contribute to that industry. No animal should be mutilated and shut in a dark too-small cage just to make my food cheap. I'm on the fence about buying battery hens. On the one hand you rescue a bird who's crime is nothing worse than being over a year old and thus gets thrown away like used tissue. On the other, you're giving money to the people who abused the bird. Not only that, but they are often unstable and have difficulty in socially fitting within a normal backyard flock. With a lot of love and patience though, they can have a semi-normal life in the yard.
Now you know....its a shame we demand so many eggs a year we drive the industry to do this.... adopt away
