The majority of egg-laying hens have the sharpest point of their beaks passed under an infra-red beam when they are a day old. This has the effect of rounding off the sharpest point of the beak when the bird is fully grown.
This is what a hen looks like with a beak that has not been treated. You can see that the tip of the beak overhangs the bottom with a sharp point.
Aggressive birds instigate feather pecking and cannibalism, and a bird with a sharp beak can cause extreme injury or death to other members of the flock.
This is what a hen looks like at 19 weeks having had the procedure as a chick. Beak tipping allows normal beak growth but the infra-red treatment effectively rounds the sharpest point at the end of the beak.
This means dominant birds are less equipped to do harm to other hens in the flock.
Hen welfare is farmers' number one priority and having injured or dead birds is a disaster. University of Glasgow research concluded that the beak tipping process does not result in chronic adverse consequences for nerve function, nor evidence of chronic pain associated with this procedure.
Organic-certified hens do not have their beaks routinely treated, and there are examples of conventional flocks of untreated hens which do not have issues.
However, numerous research projects with non-treated flocks at Bristol University have led to outbreaks of feather pecking and the experiments had to be abandoned.
Breeding hens which are less likely to peck each other is an alternative to beak tipping but is not practical in Britain at present.
White hens are generally known to be more passive. However, white hens lay white eggs and most British consumers currently demand brown eggs.
Beak tipping is extremely technologically advanced, ensuring a rapid treatment in seconds.
Hen welfare is the number one priority of free range egg farmers and most rely on hens being beak treated until an alternative is found which doesn't put hen welfare at risk.