RSPCA poultry standards criticised by Pembrokeshire couple
From July 2025, RPSCA Assured, the RSPCA's labelling and assurance scheme, is rolling out a new set of standards including a requirement for free-range egg members to provide 3% of natural daylight in housing.
But producers like Stephen and Clare Morgan argue that this will actually diminish welfare in sheds, not improve it.
They produce eggs from four flocks of 16,000 hens at Fenton Home Farm, near Haverfordwest, with daylight in the sheds provided by popholes.
The Morgans say light levels need to be managed to prevent injurious feather pecking and that forcing poultry businesses to provide minimum levels of daylight is harmful to hens' welfare.
When they experienced an isolated issue with feather pecking in one of their flocks, the only way they could manage it was by suppressing light in the housing.
'We tried everything but the only way we could deal with it and calm the birds down was to make their environment darker,'' Stephen explains.
But RSPCA Assured suggests that natural daylight helps to reduce incidents of injurious pecking and encourages free-range hens to range by minimising the differences between the inside and outside environment.
The new regulations require RSPCA Assured free-range egg members to provide 3% natural daylight to hens, either at the time of refurbishment cycle or by 1 January 2035 – whichever is sooner.
The Morgans, who supply their eggs to Kent-based Fridays, reckon that the new standards will add 4p to the price of a dozen eggs.
They say eggs imported from Europe will not have to comply with the standards therefore it will put British egg producers at an immediate cost disadvantage.
Another of the standards which the Morgans are at odds with RSPCA Assured on is the provision of 20% natural cover on ranges from 1 May 2027 because they fear that density of trees and shrubs will attract wild birds potentially carrying the avian influenza (AI) virus.
'Trees will encourage wild birds to roost and rest and that increases the AI risk to our hens,'' says Clare. 'We don't want wild birds anywhere near our hens.''
While the Morgans welcome any improvements to bird welfare, they say it must be done with 'good scientific evidence''.
Kelly Grellier, RSPCA Assured's Chief Commercial Officer, said a number of amendments had been made to the natural daylight standard previously announced 'to ensure the implementation process ties in with a member's planned refurbishment cycle.''
This, she said, would make implementation 'more practical and achievable, whilst still progressing hen welfare''.
'Working together to find solutions gives the greatest chance of achieving this standard, ensuring that all hens experience natural daylight.''
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