You might think that since a hen has been rescued from an industrial or neglectful situation, it’s harmless to take her eggs and eat them. But every modern hen—whether from a factory farm, a “free-range” setup, or a backyard—is the product of centuries of selective breeding for extreme egg output.
Wild jungle fowl, the ancestors of all chickens, laid fewer than 20 eggs per year and lived 8–15 years. Modern hens lay 250–320 eggs each year and often live only 2–3 years before their bodies fail under the strain.
Who Needs the Eggs More?
The hens do. Each egg drains her body of calcium, protein, and amino acids. The constant production leads to nutrient depletion, brittle bones, and reproductive disorders such as:
Egg yolk peritonitis
Internal laying and prolapse
Ovarian and oviduct cancer
Even well-cared-for hens in sanctuaries face these illnesses because the damage is written into their genetics, not caused by neglect.
What Happens to the Eggs at Sanctuaries
At sanctuaries, we return the eggs to the hens or feed them back (cooked and crushed) to replace lost nutrients. Each egg represents calcium and protein her body cannot afford to lose. Taking those eggs for human use only deepens her depletion.
The Scale of Exploitation
There are roughly 310 million laying hens in the United States.
Around the same number of male chicks are killed at hatch because they cannot lay eggs.
That’s over 600 million birds born and killed within two years of life, every year.
Wild hens lay 20 eggs annually; modern hens lay more than 12 times that number.
To produce the same quantity of eggs naturally would require 3.7 billion ancestral hens.
Health Consequences for Hens
Studies show 80–90% of hens over two years old develop reproductive disease or cancer.
These illnesses cause pain, internal infection, and often slow death without treatment.
The overwhelming majority of hens—industrial and backyard alike—never receive medical care.
Why Backyard Hens Rarely See a Vet
Backyard chicken owners frequently tell us they won’t spend hundreds of dollars to treat a bird they purchased for $3–$5. As a result, hens suffering from egg binding, peritonitis, or prolapse often die untreated or are euthanized at home. This is not neglect out of cruelty, but out of a system that assigns almost no value to a hen’s life.
The Bigger Picture Behind every rescued hen are:
Parent birds confined and slaughtered once fertility declines.
Male chicks killed immediately after hatching.
Genetic manipulation that ensures high output and early death.
A public taught that eggs are “natural” and “necessary,” when neither is true.
What We Can Do
No part of egg production is humane—not in a factory, not in a backyard, not in a rescue. We’ve created fragile, cancer-prone birds whose suffering continues even after rescue. The kindest choice is to stop taking their eggs and let them live as peacefully as possible.
Choosing veganism means stepping outside this system of exploitation and refusing to benefit from harm. It’s a compassionate, practical way to give these birds back what humanity has taken from them.
