It just seems like the math doesn’t add up. Like I eat a healthy diet and I get tired just pooping out the bad stuff, meanwhile a chicken can eat non stop corn and have enough “good” stuff left over to create and throw away an egg the size of their head, every day.
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TL;DR: All their food consumption goes into laying eggs, they can’t do this for more than a couple years, and are euthanized the moment their laying rate drops.
Layer hens eat a lot. They eat around half their body weight in feed weekly, and they need a lot of protein. They’re kept in appalling, confined conditions where they don’t spend much energy beyond laying eggs, so all their energy and protein goes into eggs.
The reason is breeding. Wild chickens, or breeds not designed for egg production, lay only around an egg a month. Layer hens (not the same breeds as those you eat, which are called broilers) lay an egg a day and this is not great for long-term health.
They also only can maintain this rate for a short period in their lifespan. The average layer hen is allowed to live only about 2 years in a factory, because after that their productivity rate drops off and the cost of feed for them becomes less efficient. They are rarely slaughtered for meat, because layers are not as plump as broilers and do not meet supermarket customer expectations for dinner. Most layer hens are gassed with CO2 and processed for animal feed or fertilizer, or just buried in landfills.
[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/egg-laying-hens_n_59c3c93fe4b0c90504fc04a1](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/egg-laying-hens_n_59c3c93fe4b0c90504fc04a1)
In traditional farms, layer hens may live longer, since they are allowed to forage which reduces feed costs. But they rarely are kept for more than a few years due to declining egg production. Layer hens can live naturally to about 8 years, compared to wild junglefowl who live up to 20.
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