Modern backyard hens stop laying not just due to age or environment, but because decades of selective breeding push their bodies far beyond their natural limits, causing pain and health issues.
Backyard chicken keeping, while seemingly a kinder alternative to commercial egg production, often replicates the same ethical and practical issues on a smaller scale.
All chickens on egg farms are hens? Billions of them worldwide. All chicks that hatch from fertilized eggs are 50% female and 50% male. But where are all the roosters?
Why keeping backyard chickens as a response to the egg shortage is not the solution to the problem, and why it's crucial to understand the welfare issues in the egg industry instead.
