Have you seen those little blue stickers on the packs of eggs recently? The ones telling you that hens have been temporarily housed in barns? It’s because there’s been a bout of Avian Influenza (AI), a disease that’s bad news for the chicken population of the UK so they’re all being kept indoors to prevent it spreading and these stickers are part of that process.
A few weeks ago somebody on Twitter was questioning whether it’s right to carry on buying these eggs, if the hens are no longer free range. It’s a good question, and not a very easy one to answer. I also realised that many people might not know the difference between barn eggs and free range eggs, so I’ve written this post to spill the beans on how the 35 million UK laying hens spend their lives. After reading this, you can make a decision on