Female chickens are subjected to some of the most inhumane treatments of any factory-farmed animal. Extreme confinement, surgical procedures performed without painkillers, and the denial of normal socialization opportunities are among the many factors that make these chickens lives difficult and at times unbearable. Every stage of a factory-farmed chickens life is filled with treatment that many people consider inhumane. Chicks begin their lives in massive hatcheries, where they come into the world alongside thousands of other chicks who are never allowed to meet their parents. Lamps provide artificial heat to replace the warmth of the mothers body, where chicks would normally spend the first few days of life huddled beneath her wings. After being transported from hatcheries, both broilers and layer hens spend the rest of their lives in intensely crowded, often unsanitary conditions. At grow barns and egg-laying facilities, they are prevented from resting properly or engaging in normal social activities. Forced molting is a particularly inhumane treatment layer hens endure. The process begins when the birds are about one year old, before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. Forced molting involves starving hens of food and water, which can last anywhere from seven to 28 days. The process is meant to force the hens body to produce as many eggs as possible before they are killed. While still commonplace in many regions, forced molting is considered so cruel that many countries and states have banned the Forced molting involves starving hens of food and water to force their bodies to produce more eggs