The alarm against the injustice of keeping battery hens and factory-farmed chickens has been sounded and particularly strongly in the UK by two celebrity chefs, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver. Late in 2007, the pair launched a televised campaign to boycott sales of cheap factory chicken and opt for free-range and organic, to pressure the industry into improving living standards for their poultry. It proved an overwhelming success, with supermarkets selling out of free-range chicken to the last drumstick.

Eglu - your own free range chickens!
Now the general public are echoing the sentiment as a new, funky type of chicken run is available to buy, complete with two live chickens! The Eglu, made by the company Omlet, looks somewhat like an iMac and provides first-time chicken-keepers with all the necessary information about how to successfully keep chickens. Eglus are due to go on sale for £200 (250 euros) this summer, whereas they are currently on sale for between £360-£700 (450-880 euros) - not exactly a bargain. However, for family's buying free-range eggs, this cost could prove a beneficial saving in the future.

In a bid to save chickens from slaughter, Britons are rescuing chickens in droves with 80,515 chickens being re-homed by the Battery Hen Welfare Trust since 2003.

EU crackdown on battery hens
In the EU, a directive issued in 1999 states that all member states must have phased out battery egg farming by 2012, replacing the cramped and dirty conditions with larger "enriched" cages. In 2003, the EU launched unfringement proceedings against Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy and Portugal for not complying with the directive's implementation phases. The directive states that the new cages must be 750 cm per hen, which must include a nest, litter for pecking and scratching, perching space of at least 15 cm per hen and suitable claw-shortening devices.

EU egg farmers at a disadvantage?
This new legislation, however, may mean that EU farmers will consistently be under-cut by overseas producers who are not regulated so strictly. Although the agricultural campaign group Compassion in World Farming states that it won't be an issue: "Providing EU governments join growing numbers of retailers and the majority of consumers in supporting the ban, it will not necessarily be damaging and will probably be good for rural economies."

Whatever the economic outcome, let's hope that this is the start of a more positive life for battery hens.