Healthier Hens is a new Effective Altruism aligned animal welfare organization. Our vision is to cost-effectively improve the well-being of millions of farmed egg-laying hens. We are investigating the potential of an intervention focused on alleviating pain and improving hen health and welfare by optimizing the nutritional quality of layer hen feed, as recommended by the Charity Entrepreneurship research team. Our end goal is to lobby for legislation that sets minimum standards for nutrients in poultry feed and help enforce those standards nationwide.

While impactful, the egg industry’s ongoing positive transition to cage-free systems does not address the deeply neglected issue of poor bone health in layer hens, a major welfare problem prevalent across all housing systems on commercial farms. More than half of all hens experience at least one unnoticed and untreated fracture in their lifespan, which equals tons of neglected pain. We choose to act now and in doing so seek to achieve unprecedented counterfactual impact and healthier hens!

One of the first steps we must take is to properly analyze the nutrient levels in commercial and farmer-made feed, as well as assess bone deviations and fractures. For $25 we can pay for transportation for our farm visits, fr $70 we can test one feed sample and for $175 we can assess the bone health of 30 hens through palpation. And in preparation for our pilot, $1800 would allow us to provide optimal feed to 500 hens.

Healthier Hens is (Federal Tax ID: 88-1680823) a California charitable trust with federal tax-exempt status as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions to Healthier Hens are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.