# Council Directive 1999/74/EC of 19 July 1999 laying down minimum standards for the protection of laying hens, Article 6

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

Member States shall ensure that after 1 January 2002 all the cages referred to in this chapter comply at least with the following requirements:
1.. laying hens must have:
(a) at least 750 cm2 of cage area per hen, 600 cm2 of which shall be usable; the height of the cage other than that above the usable area shall be at least 20 cm at every point and no cage shall have a total area that is less than 2000 cm2;
(b) a nest;
(c) litter such that pecking and scratching are possible;
(d) appropriate perches allowing at least 15 cm per hen;
2.. a feed trough which may be used without restriction must be provided. Its length must be at least 12 cm multiplied by the number of hens in the cage;
3.. each cage must have a drinking system appropriate to the size of the group; where nipple drinkers are provided, at least two nipple drinkers or two cups must be within the reach of each hen;
4.. to facilitate inspection, installation and depopulation of hens there must be a minimum aisle width of 90 cm between tiers of cages and a space of at least 35 cm must be allowed between the floor of the building and the bottom tier of cages;
5.. cages must be fitted with suitable claw-shortening devices.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/1999/74/article/6 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-directive-1999-74/article-6
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.