It’ll Shock You: So Many Eggs Hens ‘Have to’ Lay per Year
Easter is coming up: does that mean one big egg feast at your house? Eggs in the pan, in an Easter cake, in the garden, and perhaps even over the asparagus? Or do you not really like eggs, or do you eat a strictly plant-based diet? Either way, an unimaginable number of laying hens are bred in the Netherlands, and a lot is expected of them.
Hens lay an egg, and if that egg remains there, the hen will develop the urge to brood. However, if the egg is removed, the hen will lay another one, and so on. Hens whose eggs are removed every day will therefore continue laying eggs in a constant stream, and humans also create such conditions that a laying hen gets virtually no day of rest during her laying life.
More and more
This is extensively investigated by the makers of the program Keuringsdienst van Waarde, who persuaded various people in the entire egg-eating chain to give them a look behind the scenes. When they investigate at the Poultry Museum since when hens have become such laying machines, we see that this is something from the past few decades. Before that, hens laid an average of sixty eggs a year, and that is a very different (egg) story from today.
Multibillion-dollar industry
Because at the company one of the journalists is allowed to visit for filming—one of the companies responsible for producing the average three billion (!) eggs consumed in the Netherlands each year (which may also be processed into other types of food)—the hens have been bred in such a way that they lay more than three hundred eggs per year. An average of six per week, and according to egg seller Willy Hesseling, who speaks in the program, hens that lay white eggs lay a few more than hens that lay brown eggs.
Worth watching
So the hens are working very, very hard. And it’s perhaps something to think about, especially if you care about animal welfare and how far we humans go to use animals for our needs. Once again, this episode is highly recommended!
Also read:
- How many chocolate Easter eggs do you have to eat to gain 1 kilo?
- Surprising figures about vegans’ dating lives
- What is that white string in your egg, and can you eat it?
Source: Keuringsdienst van Waarde; watch the entire episode here, Photographer: KRO-NCRV
