Furnished cages
Furnished cages, sometimes called enriched or modified cages, are cages for egg laying hens which have been designed to overcome some of the welfare concerns of battery cages whilst retaining their economic and husbandry advantages, and also provide some of the welfare advantages of non-cage systems. Many design features of furnished cages have been incorporated because research in animal welfare science has shown them to be of benefit to the hens.
Battery cages are already banned in several countries including Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands and prototype commercial furnished cage systems were being developed in the 1980s. In 1999, the European Union Council Directive 1999/74/EC banned the conventional battery cage in the EU from 2012, after a 10-year phase-out. As alternatives to battery cages, the EU Council Directive allowed non-cage systems and furnished cages. Furnished cages therefore represent a feasible alternative to battery cages in the EU after 2012.
Under Directive 1999/74/EC, furnished cages must provide at least the following: 750 cm2 per hen, of which 600 cm2 is 45 cm high, a nest, a littered area for scratching and pecking, 15 cm of perch and 12 cm of food trough per hen and a claw shortening device.
Austria banned battery cages in 2009 and is set to ban furnished cages by 2020. Belgium has also banned the battery cage – and proposes to ban furnished cages by 2024. Germany has introduced a ‘family cage’, which has more space than the furnished cages used in other countries, however, consumers in Germany have been rejecting these eggs. Outside the EU, Switzerland has already banned both the battery and furnished cage systems.
All major UK supermarkets have promised to stop selling eggs from furnished cages by 2025.
Furnished cages retain several advantages of battery cages in that they-
Furnished cages have welfare benefits additional to battery cages by providing -
There is no clear limit to the size of the furnished cages. Although initial models were not much larger than conventional battery cages, most current designs house 40 to 80 hens although one system houses 115 hens. The depth of furnished cages is often more than the depth of battery cages and as a result, they are often arranged with only one cage row per level, i.e. not connected back-to-back. The more shallow cages can be connected back-to-back. To create space for large groups of hens, some designs of furnished cages are very long. Cage bottoms are made of wire mesh or plastic slats and are sloped so that eggs not laid in the nest box roll onto an egg belt. Feed is provided in feeders outside the cage, although in some designs there may be internal feeders or a combination of the two. Perches in some designs are raised and in others are at floor level.
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