Best Practice Hens: an EU pilot project to support the transition to cage-free housing systems in the European Union

Since 2012, conventional cages for laying hens have been banned in the EU and all laying hens should be housed in either furnished cages or cage-free systems. However, even in furnished cages, laying hens have limited space and opportunities for natural behaviour. There is considerable variation in the uptake of cagefree systems among EU countries. The Best Practice Hens project aims to help EU egg producers by providing practical guidelines on how to transition to cage-free systems. The Best Practice Hens project combines input from experts from countries that already have a high percentage of cage-free systems (DK, NL, DE, FR; cage-free countries) and experts from countries that are still transitioning (ES, PT, PL, BE; target countries). Best practices for keeping pullets and laying hens in cage-free systems were developed based on the review of scientific literature, management guides and other technical information available. For the scientific review, 39 papers for pullets and 167 papers for laying hens were included after screening and were described in detail. In addition, 59 sources of technical information were found and semi-structured interviews with the egg industry were organized in the cage-free countries. This information was used to formulate 68 best practices, 24 for pullets and 44 for laying hens, some of which are general while others apply to specific housing systems. This detailed set of 68 best practices was further reorganized into 31 general best practices (15 for pullets and 16 for laying hens), which were discussed with stakeholders at EU level and from the involved countries, and finalized based on their input. This final set of 31 best practices is the basis for our dissemination activities, consisting of publication of practice abstracts, social media contributions, our website (www.bestpracticehens.eu) and dissemination meetings in the target countries and a large dissemination event in Brussels.