Chickens beaks and happiness worth $2 a week

OK - so I just killed 2 Ethopian children by making this judgment call, but I finally came to the conclusion that happier chickens with beaks and feathers was worth the extra $2 a week.  Note this means I have made the switch to barn laid eggs - but not yet free range.  The further $2/3 a week to give each chicken sunlight and pasture by killing another 2/3 ECU's wasn't a reprioritization that I was ready for yet.
I'm hoping that more people will slowly make this judgment move and put at least a bit of animal cruelty prevention above their need for cable / satellite tv for a couple of months (if you're like us and manage to eat a dozen eggs a week...), and slowly allow the costs of the production methods to close.
Tags: nz, new zealand, ECU, eggs, free range, barn laid

[Update] When I wrote this post this morning I had not read the NZ herald and so had not yet hit the editorial about outlawing battery cage hens.  In that opinion article by Catriona MacLennan she quotes two high profile polls that "overwhelmingly support" the banning of battery cages for hens.  This is the core of her argument in that the battery farming of hens should be outlawed.  I disagree entirely.  There is a far better poll that shows (unfortunately) that the majority of New Zealanders DO still support battery farming of eggs - and that is quote simply the number of eggs sold by farming method each week.  If we did not support the practice, we would not buy those eggs and the cages would fade from existence.  You see it is far easier to SAY that we are against battery farmed eggs, than to actually BE against the practice - and the consequences of its removal.  I support the removal of the practice - but it should be done as I indicate in my original post - through the removal of the economics that support it, not through the unilateral legislation against something that is obviously still supported by the majority of people.If free range and barn laid eggs were not easily accessible via the supermarkets etc (like say 10 years ago) the argument might be different.  But the choice is there and, sadly, most of us still say cage those hens.