Overview of natural and organic egg production: Looking back to the future

The US egg industry has grown dramatically in the past, with a significant component of that growth focusing on alternative production systems such as cage-free or range egg production. Constituents of this growth involving intensive egg production create uncertainty in relation to the future because of concerns about the impact of the cage environment on laying hen well-being. Both the commercial egg production sector and small producers using heritage strains of chickens, in flocks ranging in size from 100 to 3,000 hens, are responding by producing eggs in both cage-free and range settings. However, one of the current issues is that our knowledge base of how these alternative production methods influence egg performance and quality characteristics is limited to research studies that were conducted in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This information was collected with specific breeds, and not with modern lines of poultry that have been selected for very high rates of egg production. Therefore, an examination of alterative laying hen husbandry practices in the context of the current knowledge base would provide beneficial information to identify how these husbandry and feeding practices translate to modern strains of laying hens under cage-free or range production. Research on range or cage-free production done in controlled settings is limited, and additional studies relevant to egg producers wishing to expand cage-free and range egg production are needed.