The theory behind 2nd year, battery or rescue chickens.

Now we all know cage eggs are a bad idea and free range is optimal but you might be interested to know a little more about egg production.

A basic understanding will tell you that generally for every hen that hatches theres a rooster also. How many homes actually want roosters. Not many thats for sure and in many places you're allowed to own a few laying hens but certainly not roosters. I mean seriously who'd want them? They crow at very unreasonably hours as an unpredictable alarm clock, they can sometimes be a little grumpy and they certainly don't lay eggs.

So there are very few homes for roosters. Roosters hatched in breeding facilities are killed with one of two methods (carbon dioxide gassing or quick maceration).

Quick maceration ensures the chick is killed within a second and is considered more humane than gassing with high concentrations of carbon dioxide. Gassing results in gasping and head shaking and, depending on the mixture of gases used, it may take up to two minutes for the chick to die.

One of the reasons I am a vegetarian is because I don't believe killing animals is necessary to sustain life. If this is a part of why you are considering vegetarianism then you can see the issue with eating eggs. So what can you do?

While commercial egg production continues there are ways in a backyard coop to be more ethical. To remove ourselves from the cycle of rooster killing we can buy 2nd hand, ex-battery or rescue hens.

2nd year or 2nd hand hens are often advertised for sale in the trading post or online. Hens generally have a good 2-3 yrs of laying and the frequency of laying decreases every year. So, many small producers will sell their chickens when they are 1yr old as egg laying decreases. Many families also bought hens as pets for their kids and found the novelty wore off. 2nd year hens are generally about $10 each.

Ex-battery hens are hens that are being rehomed from battery farm facilities. They often need rehabilitation due to their previous living conditions. Most have few feathers left. Homesforhens.net is a wonderful website that arranges adoption of ex-battery hens. Without rescue these hens would have been slaughtered.

Rescue hens Like other animals, sometimes people can no longer care for or have their chickens and many rescue organisations look after them until they find a new home.

We have had our 2nd year chooks for less than a week. They aren't laying yet, like many at this time of year, but they are a delight.