Hen Care

The Care of Laying Hens in Manitoba

Egg farmers are responsible for the care and well-being of 2.6 million hens in our province, who lay 76 million dozen eggs a year. To learn what hens are fed and to view a variety of different hen housing environments on local Manitoba farms, watch the videos below.

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Enriched Housing

Enriched housing combines the food safety benefits of conventional housing with the welfare benefits of open housing.

4-D Farms Ltd. provides an inside view of their enriched housing environment.

Take a look inside Don and Shannon Gaultier's enriched laying hen farm.

Kate Fleming Van Deynze says all family members pitch in to help on the enriched laying hen farm.

Free-Run

Free-Run Housing gives hens access to the entire barn floor area. Hens are able to perch, scratch and lay their eggs in nesting boxes.

An average layer barn in Manitoba is home to about 13,000 laying hens.

Take a look inside the Siemens' Free-Run aviary environment.

This video will take you inside Milton's barn.

Free-Run Aviary Housing

Free-Run Aviary Housing allows the hens access to the entire barn area. Aviary housing provides a multi-tiered system of enrichments for the hens, where they are able to perch, scratch and lay their eggs in nesting boxes.

Free-Range

Free-Range Housing gives hens access to the outdoors and outdoor vegetation (weather permitting). Hens are able to perch, nest, dust bathe, scratch and forage.

 


Hens can forage for food outdoors, weather permitting.

 

Conventional Housing

Conventional Housing provides hens with small group settings that enable all birds to have equal access to fresh food and water. Caged housing maximizes food safety.

In Manitoba, regulated egg farmers produce about 60 million dozen eggs each year.

Egg Farmers take pride in producing high quality eggs for Manitobans to enjoy.

This video will take you inside a conventional housing environment.

What do we feed our hens?

The Whole Family Gets Involved

Barn Tours