September 5, 2012 11:47 PM
Posted By Ann
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Tasmania is to be congratulated on being the first State in Australia to outlaw battery cages for laying hens. We are fond of describing people in a derogatory way by likening them to animals, 'Bird brained' we call someone behaving stupidly, a person we think lacks courage we refer to as 'Chicken hearted'. If we really believe that domestic hens have neither brains nor feelings then perhaps it isn’t such a heinous crime to treat them as ‘things’ and condemn them to spend their entire lives in cramped wire cages, existing just to supply us with eggs. But hens are sentient beings, like us. They feel pain as we do, they are devoted mothers and enjoy a rich social life, have good memories and are far from stupid or lacking in courage especially when defending their chickens.
These discarded hens are not old. They are thrown out at first moult at around eighteen months. Nature designed a rest period from laying when they have an annual change of feathers known as moult. We are not so generous. A battery hen not laying is unprofitable and therefore useless no matter that this is only a temporary state. Given decent conditions, living space the size of an A4 sheet of paper is not decent, hens will live and lay till seven or eight years of age. I have had them live till ten. There are great benefits to a few hens in the garden. The obvious one is a supply of fresh eggs from healthy hens, they eat up kitchen scraps and weeds, they supply manure to add to the garden. It is a bonus that they make excellent pets and are a delight to watch. You don't need to board them when you go away, most people have a neighbour more than willing to care for them in return for the eggs. |