ATWATER, Calif. — The gigantic chicken coop at the JS West farm here is big enough to hangar a Boeing 747, and the clucks from 150,000 egg-laying hens make it almost as noisy as one.
Jill Benson, whose family owns the place, is proud of the roomy cages, the clean, ventilated air and, yes, even the never-ending squawks from all those birds.
"They're singing because they're happy," she said.
If that's true, California voters can take some of the credit. Proposition 2, passed by a wide margin in 2008, requires chicken farmers to give their egg-laying birds enough room to stand and spread their wings.
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