Egg-cellent Easter ideas to help kids think about hen welfare
We all know that Easter means eggs, especially the chocolate kind. But did you know that even more ‘normal’ shell eggs will be sold than the whopping 80 million chocolate eggs* bought over Easter?
In fact, in the UK we consume a staggering 13.6 billion** real eggs a year, which is over 260 million a week! That’s a lot of eggs and a lot of hens laying those eggs.
Sadly, not every hen lives a good life with access to space and enrichment. In the UK eight million hens still spend their whole lives in a cage. This means one in five eggs sold comes from caged hens in the UK.
Make it a Happier Easter for hens
You can make a difference to the lives of millions of hens, simply by looking for the RSPCA Assured label on eggs this Easter. All hens from our member farms are cared for to over 700 RSPCA higher welfare standards aimed at giving them a good life. This means they will have plenty of space to move and flap their wings, dustbathe, perch up high and have interesting things to peck at and explore.
Helping young people engage with welfare
To help you encourage conversations with the kids in your life about eggs and hen welfare, we have developed some fun Easter activities! It’s really important that younger generations understand that all animals, including hens, deserve to be treated with compassion, kindness and respect.
Egg-cellent Easter ideas for kids
Crack-the-code egg hunt
Did you know it is easy to ‘read’ an egg and find out where the egg was laid? Each egg we buy has a number stamped on it which tells you whether it is free range, barn reared or from a caged hen.
Game: Help kids learn on the go and get to know their higher welfare eggs. Paint or stick large numbers 0, 1, 2 or 3 on some higher welfare hard boiled eggs - decorated or dyed will look more fun and hide them around the house or garden.
Ask them to hunt for the eggs and then give out prizes for the eggs they find marked:
- 0 = organic
- 1 = free range
- 2 = barn egg***
BUT challenge them to do a kid-friendly forfeit for the eggs that are printed with:
- 3 = as these come from caged hens.
And explain to them why hens should be cage-free and treated with kindness.
Fresh or funky? Easter eggs-periment
An incredible 720 million eggs are actually thrown away in the UK each year****. To help reduce food waste and give your kids a tip-for-life try this eggs-periment - using RSPCA Assured eggs of course!
If you have some time ahead, keep some ‘older’ eggs separate from your usual fresh egg supply then ask your kids to guess which egg is the freshest just by looking at it. (This is impossible!)
Then show them a neat trick which can tell which eggs are old and which eggs are fresh. Simply place your egg in a bowl or glass of cold water and see what happens. If the egg is fresh it will sink to the bottom and lie flat; if it is older it will sink but stand on one end; (this can still be eaten), a ‘rotten egg’ will float to the surface (not edible). This happens because as eggs get older the size of the air sac inside increases making it more buoyant.
To make this more fun kids can draw faces on these eggs in a permanent marker and the good ones can be boiled for Easter breakfast!
Perch patrol
Hens love to perch. This is an instinct from their wild ancestors and perches make them feel safe and secure.
Game: If you have any hen toys from any farmyard sets, hide them in plain sight around the kitchen or living room - if not, simply draw some pictures on paper and stick them on cupboards etc. Encourage your kids to find the hens and think about why hens might like to perch in those places. Once all the hens are found - the finders can be rewarded! A finder can then hide the hens again.
An RSPCA Assured hen will always have places to perch to roost, preen and feel safe, our RSPCA standards require that all hens have access to raised perches.
Eggs-traordinary fact or fiction?
Hens are much more intelligent and interesting than many people think. They are sociable, inquisitive and even good communicators.
Encourage your kids to answer some questions about hens to get them thinking about how unique these animals are and how they should be treated with kindness. Here’s some to get you started:
Do you think hens make a purring noise like a cat when they are happy?
True! Hens are good communicators and have around 30 unique vocalisations for things such as food discovery, and warnings of danger and when they are happy they can sound a bit like a cat!
Do hens dream when they go to sleep?
True! Yes, scientists have discovered that hens experience REM (rapid eye movement) sleep which means they are able to dream.
Do you think it’s the colour of a hen's toes or earlobes that makes the colour of their eggs white or brown?
Ear lobes is correct! The colour of a hen’s earlobes will be the best indicator of brown or white eggs. Dark lobes (red or brown) usually mean brown eggshells and lighter lobes can mean white eggshells!
Does a hen like to have a bath in water or in the dust/sand?
They love a good dust bathe! Rolling around in dust helps them to remove parasites and also keeps them clean.
Can hens sleep with one eye open?
Yes! Hens have a sleep phase called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep where one half of the brain is asleep and other awake. Which means they can actually sleep with one eye open - helpful for looking out for danger.
How you can help
It’s never too early or too late to think about the welfare of animals and how you can make a difference. If you eat meat, fish, eggs or dairy products and would like to help ensure farm animals live better lives, look out for RSPCA Assured-labelled products when you’re shopping.
You can also take action by lobbying your supermarket to only sell higher welfare produce - and visit the RSPCA’s website to find out more about their ‘End the Cage Age’ campaign.
Happy Easter!
* https://www.thefoodpocketguide.com/2022/04/interviews-news/easter-eggs/
** https://www.egginfo.co.uk/egg-facts-and-figures/industry-information/data
*** The majority of RSPCA Assured eggs come from free-range hens, some eggs can also be from higher welfare barn-reared hens. Whether indoor or outdoor raised, RSPCA Assured labelled products are always higher welfare.
About the author
Jodie - Website Manager
Jodie is RSPCA Assured's Website Manager.