Bugs in the dirt, shady tufts of hay and dust galore - is it chicken nirvana, or is it Vacaville?

It's both. That's what 500 battered and bruised hens discovered this weekend, after being rescued from a Central Valley egg farm where they were doomed to the gas chamber because they weren't laying enough eggs.

Thanks to a farm-animal rescue group called Animal Place, the hens were moved this weekend to a 60-acre farm in Vacaville where they'll receive veterinary treatment, their first glimpses of sunlight and dirt, and, eventually, new homes.

"They're a little loopy when they first get here," said Kim Sturla, director of Animal Place, which in its 25-year history has rescued more than 14,000 hens from California egg farms. "It's almost impossible to adequately describe what they've suffered. But after they've been here a few weeks, they usually look pretty good. They start to enjoy themselves and act like normal chickens."

The hens, in this case brown leghorns, are all between 1 1/2 and 2 years old - an age where typically their egg production begins to wane. They were bred to lay 300 a year, as opposed to the 40 or so a regular hen would lay. And once the numbers begin to drop, egg farmers usually dispose of them.

Cramped cages

While at the egg farm, the hens live in wire cages so cramped they're unable to flap their wings or turn around without bumping other chickens. Their beaks are snipped so they don't peck at their roommates.

Animal Place obtains the chickens for free, making sure to keep the farmer anonymous, and trucks them to the sanctuary in Vacaville.

When they arrive, the hens have a host of medical ills, including parasites, atrophied muscles, nails that have grown more than an inch long and, in some cases, cancer of their reproductive organs.

They're so weak at first that they often can't walk and so traumatized, they're afraid to explore their new terrain. They're so accustomed to crowding that at night, they instinctively pile atop one another, smothering those at the bottom, Sturla said.

"That's called clumping," she said. "For the first few nights, that's all we do - pick them up and move them from the pile, so they don't kill each other."

Ninety-five percent of the country's eggs come from traditional egg farms, as opposed to organic or cage-free operations, according to the United Egg Producers trade group.

The group declined to comment. Its website says that most of California's hens live safe, healthy lives. They may be crowded, but they're protected from predators and avian diseases like bird flu, and receive regular medical care.

In any case, the plight of California hens is expected to improve somewhat Jan. 1, when Proposition 2 goes into effect. The law, passed in 2008, requires that hens and other farm animals be housed with enough room to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely.

No one knows how the law will affect California's 18.3 million egg-laying hens. Some egg farmers said they'll move to other states. Others said they'll be forced to raise prices, and some said the law won't make much difference.

The best way to protect hens is to quit eating eggs entirely, said veterinarian Sherstin Rosenberg, who runs Happy Hens Rescue in San Luis Obispo.

Rooster plight

Even the most humane egg farms have to address an inconvenient problem: roosters. For every hen that waddles around a farmyard, there are 10 to 15 roosters killed at birth.

"Our goal is to encourage people to choose a vegan diet," she said. "That's really the only way to help these animals that have suffered so badly in the food industry."

But short of forsaking omelets forever, the public can help California's chickens by adopting rescued hens instead of purchasing chicks at a feed store, Rosenberg said.

That's what Susan McCracken did. She's adopted four white leghorn and Rhode Island red hens from Animal Place for her backyard in Folsom (Sacramento County).

"We just have more fun with them," said McCracken, a retired travel agent. "It's just such a joy to watch them roll in the dirt. It's like, for them, the floodgates have opened. They take so much joy in life."

Rescued hens need about a month to recover from their time at the egg farms. After they put on weight and acclimate to barnyard life, their egg production drops to about 30 a year and they live normal chicken life spans, Sturla said.

"These chickens have paid dearly," she said. "They absolutely deserve to finally enjoy themselves."

The 500 hens at Animal Place will be available for adoption in about a month.

Getting involved

For more information, and to adopt a hen, go to http://animalplace.org.
