Walk into the pullet house and the reaction is
immediate—completepandemonium.Thesquawkingisloud
andintenseassome20,000birdsshovetothefarthestsideof
their cages in fear of the human intruders.^32
Julius Goldman’s Egg City, fifty miles northwest of Los
Angeles,wasoneofthefirstmillion-pluslayerunits.Already
in 1970, when the National Geographic Magazine did an
enthusiasticsurvey ofwhat were thenstillrelatively novel
farmingmethods,itconsistedoftwomillionhensdividedinto
block-longbuildingscontaining90,000henseach,fivebirds
toasixteen-by-eighteen-inchcage.BenShames,EggCity’s
executive vice-president, explained to their reporter the
methods used to look after so many birds:
Wekeeptrackofthefoodeatenandtheeggscollectedin 2
rowsofcagesamongthe 110 rowsineachbuilding.When
productiondropsto theuneconomicpoint,all90,000 birds
aresoldtoprocessorsforpotpiesorchickensoup.Itdoesn’t
pay to keep track of every row in the house, let alone
individualhens;with 2 millionbirdsonhandyouhavetorely
on statistical samplings.^33
Inmosteggfactoriesthecagesarestackedintiers,withfood
andwatertroughsrunningalongtherowsfilledautomatically
from acentralsupply.Thecageshavesloping wire floors.
Theslope—usuallyagradientofoneinfive—makesitmore
difficultforthebirdstostandcomfortably,butitcausesthe
eggstorolltothefrontofthecagewheretheycaneasilybe
collectedbyhandor,inthemoremodernplants,carriedby
conveyor belt to a packing plant.