Do chickens feel pain when laying eggs?
This is a question that has long intrigued chicken keepers. Even the ancient Romans mused about it. The first century Roman agricultural writer, Columella, for example, was certain that hens felt pain during egg laying.
He said this was obvious due to their shrill cries and sobbing during laying. He was referring to vocalizations that modern chicken keepers call the “egg song.” Most chicken keepers today believe these vocalizations actually sound more celebratory than sad.
So do chickens feel pain when laying eggs? Many chickens don’t appear to be in pain while laying eggs, but some chickens, particularly young chickens and those laying very large eggs, do show signs of pain. These signs include wheezy, gasping vocalizations while laying and occasional minor bleeding from the vent.
Understanding whether a chicken hurts when laying eggs requires you to know exactly how a chicken lays eggs and what factors could potentially contribute to her pain. Additionally, for those of you who own chickens, there are some measures you can take to make your hens’ egg-laying experiences more comfortable for them.
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How does a chicken lay an egg?
The egg begins with just the yolk. The yolk is released from the chicken’s ovary and into her oviduct. From there, the yolk travels through the oviduct where it may undergo fertilization (or not). A number of materials get added through the oviduct, including albumin (the egg white), membranes, and the shell.
Lastly, the egg is pushed through the hen’s vent by muscular contractions. The YouTube video below illustrates this (warning: the video shows a close-up of a chicken’s vent):
Does laying an egg feel like human labor and birth?
Laying an egg is very different from human labor and birth. In humans, a baby’s body and head are very large in relation to a woman’s pelvis. Labor thus takes an average of 9 hours in human women. One in a thousand babies have heads so large they can’t be delivered vaginally and c-sections must be performed.
If you watch the video above of a chicken laying an egg, on the other hand, you will see how quickly the egg is actually laid. When I watch my chickens lay, they seem to just be hanging out in the next box waiting around until the last minute or two. Then they stand up and push, and the egg falls out.
I also have tried to test if the hens are very uncomfortable while laying by holding up a treat of scrambled eggs (yes, chickens love to eat eggs) in the palm of my hand while they are in the nesting box. They will continue to happily eat out of my hand until the last 30 seconds to one minute of laying. This is the short time it takes to push the egg out.
And as soon as the egg drops, they are ready to eat again.
Chickens who are very distressed don’t typically want to eat (not even treats). This makes me suspect that if the egg laying process is painful, it may only be the last minute or so that hurts.
Factors that may affect the degree of pain during egg laying
Age of the chicken
Egg laying may be painful for young chickens. It certainly appears to be, at the very least, uncomfortable for some of them. As they strain to push the egg out, they make a wheezy, gasping sort of noise that sounds like an expression of discomfort.
And some chickens even squeak when the egg comes out. Check out the video below of an adorable little Sultan hen who makes the wheezy noise while laying and then squeaks when she finally drops her egg.
Additionally, many young chickens may lay an egg with a little blood on it, or a few drops of blood may drip out of their vents. You may even find a little blood in their feces later in the day. This may indicate that passage of the egg was painful or uncomfortable.
As a chicken lays more and more eggs, her vent will stretch out, and laying will likely become much more comfortable. I have seen many chickens hop in the nest box, lay an egg with what looks like no effort, and hop right back out to go about their day.
Size of the egg
The larger an egg is, the more likely the chicken will feel pain and discomfort in laying.
Many of my young chickens have laid double yolk eggs. This happens when two yolks are released from the hen’s ovary in a short amount of time, and they end up together in one larger egg shell. Every once in a while, I will find that one of these eggs is so abnormally large I suspect it may have been painful to lay.
What about the very large eggs at the grocery store?
An article on Daily Mail questions whether buying very large eggs is a form of animal cruelty due to the egg laying pain it may have caused the hens.
Christine Nicol, a professor of Animal Welfare at Bristol University, warns that “we do often spot bloodstains on large eggs.” She suggests that these eggs may be too large for the hens’ comfort. She finishes, “I would never buy jumbo eggs.”
However, Alan Pearson from the British Veterinary Poultry Association disagrees. He asserts that birds don’t tend to lay eggs that are too large for their bodies to handle. He refers to most large grocery store eggs as “perfectly natural.”
Another compounding factor in determining whether laying eggs is painful or not is the stoic nature of chickens. Chickens are prey animals that hide their pain. This means that just because they don’t appear to be in pain while laying doesn’t make it necessarily so.
Can a large egg get stuck in a chicken?
A large egg can get stuck in a chicken’s oviduct and this is called egg binding.
This condition can be caused by several different reasons, including an egg that’s too big to pass through, or by calcium deficiency in the hen (calcium is necessary for the muscles to squeeze the egg out).
This condition appears to be painful for hens. They do not want to move. They may pant, which is a sign of stress and discomfort. And they look just downright uncomfortable, often standing awkwardly in a penguin-type stance. If the hen is not able to pass the egg, she will eventually die.
How can you make your chickens’ egg-laying experience as pleasant as possible?
The best thing you can do for your chicken is provide her with a comfortable and private space for laying eggs, and then give her some privacy.
Clean, fresh chopped straw or aspen pads make wonderful nesting material for hens. Put this bedding in a nesting box and consider putting curtains on the nesting box. Chickens like the seclusion and darkness that nesting curtains provide. Leave the curtains open at first so your chickens can get used to them.
Most chickens don’t want you to interact with them while they are laying. If I walk into the coop when a chicken is laying, she will often make a warning growl. If, god forbid, I try to touch her, she may hiss or peck my hand. I do have a couple of chickens who still enjoy being pet while they are laying, but this isn’t the norm.
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Sources
Damerow,Gail. The Chicken Health Handbook. North Adams: Storey Publishing, 2015.
Shipman, Pat Lee. “Why is Human Childbirth So Painful?” American Scientist, Sigma Xi.
Smith, Page and Daniel, Charles. The Chicken Book. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1975.
