Disposal of spent hens: options evaluation

British Free Range Egg Producers Association Feedback

Abattoirs

43. Currently spent hens are processed in England where the facilities and market demand for the product is highest (foodservice, petfood production, exporters).

44. English-based spent hen abattoirs work on maximum throughput and rely on the volume of spent hens from Scotland for their processing efficiency. In many cases, taking away those numbers will impact on the English-based abattoirs significantly. For context (based on anecdotical data), the volumes handled by one of the English abattoirs can be as high as 20 million hens/year, or 80,000/day, which demonstrates the scale required to make the abattoirs economically sustainable.

45. Spent hens typically do not like to be handled by humans, hence the catching and crating is the most stressful part of the process for them, rather than the transport itself. Broilers are more used to humans in their short life because staff walk about the shed and weigh some of the birds weekly. The current set up of the abattoirs allows the least human interaction possible to minimise stress for the birds. The spent hens are put through the gassing chamber in the same groups they travel together with minimum contact.

Farming and transport

46. The BFREPA are not aware of any scientific evidence that suggests transporting spent hens for 8 hours or more leads to more stress or directly increases DOA figures. In the current context, the transport and end of life of the hens are carefully planned (up to a year in advance) and involves working closely with the abattoirs. The producer provides the abattoir information on agreed criteria such as hens’ weight; feather coverage (based on an agreed system) and age of birds to help determine the stocking density for crating in the lorry. It also takes account of the time of year which is related to temperature (summer, winter), to decide the appropriate stocking density of crating for transport.

47. Due to the production nature of hens, the birds are strong, mature (some of them up to 600 days old) and much more resilient to change compared to broilers.

48. It is not uncommon for the transport of hens to occur overnight, which coincides with the hens’ natural rest period, which helps to reduce stress. The hens tend not to be active during transport times. Agreed monitoring systems are in place to identify the best transport density and constant controls of DOA and manage/act on any abrupt changes.

49. The current system based on using the services of abattoirs in England works well at the moment, but there is awareness that even the 8 hour rule is challenging for some of the producers in the North of Scotland. Before 2021, the transport time limit was 12 hours which was then decreased to 8 hours, with exceptions in place for farmers who were not able to comply. The exceptions work well as it still allows farmers to be part of the scheme. However, uncertainty remains for egg producers as these concessions could be revoked at any time leaving few options available for farmers to remain in the RSPCA scheme. The use of exceptions is also common in other parts of the UK, such as Southwest England, which also struggles to comply with an 8 hour limit.

50. The BFREPA believes there does not seem to be a better alternative to managing more than 8 hours transport periods. A ’stop and resting time’ for the birds would involve taking the birds out of their crates and returning them after some time. This would most likely lead to more stress for the spent hens. In addition, feed withdrawal is calculated for the continuous journey, in order that the birds can arrive at the abattoir “empty”, resulting in less carcass contamination.

Scottish based facility considerations

51. If an abattoir was installed in Scotland, it would require a large volume of birds to make it profitable. Scotland may not have that capacity on its own and this will also impact on production and planning on-farm. Logistics planning will be more challenging if the abattoir has a limited supply base. If a small abattoir was built, which would be unlikely to be competitive, it may result in lesser numbers of birds killed per week, meaning birds from larger farms will have to be slaughtered over weeks, rather than days.

52. The option of slaughtering the birds using other alternatives (due to a restriction of 8 hours of transport), will lead to the farmer falling outside the parameters of the scheme. The consequences will be that the birds are not RSPCA assured. Considering other alternatives such as incineration would represent a waste of edible protein.