Stonegate Eggs

Despite their high-welfare claims, a 2023-4 investigation found hens collapsed and suffering on metal slatted flooring at a farm supplying eggs to Stonegate. Dead hens were scattered across the floors and in nest boxes, while even more bodies were found piled up inside a chest freezer.⁵

In 2022, investigators at one of Stonegate Eggs’ duck farms found industrial-sized sheds, where thousands of ducks are forced to live on layer-upon-layer of decaying straw, faeces, and urine without access to water baths to preen. ⁶

Footage also captured workers killing ducks by dislocating their necks and leaving lame, sick, and blind birds to suffer in pain. Ducks were filmed as they struggled to walk, using their wings to slide along the sodden floor of the filthy barns.

The Stonegate Eggs’ farm where hens were found to be suffering is actually the family farm of one Pauline Jones, a BFREPA Director. The British Free Range Egg Producers Association might be expected to put hens’ welfare first, but it actually lobbied the RSPCA and the government against increasing minimum welfare standards for hens, and it won, condemning free-range birds to many more years without sufficient natural light and outdoor space.[7, 8]

In 2025, Stonegate Eggs was fined £90,000 by Wessex Water for waste effluent breaches from their site in Wiltshire.⁹

Workers at a duck farm supplying Stonegate Eggs were filmed dumping eggs unfit for human consumption onto the surrounding land. These eggs are classed as a Category 3 animal byproduct, meaning they are a potential risk to human health and are legally required to be incinerated. By failing to adhere to this legal requirement, investigators say that the farm created a significant risk to both humans and wildlife.¹⁰

Farmers under contract to Stonegate Eggs in Northern Ireland criticised the company for reneging on its promises of fair compensation linked to market prices. Instead, many farmers reported that their payments were well below industry standards. Stonegate’s CEO, Adrian Gott, reportedly decided against speaking with the farmers who made the complaint but instead most got their notice to leave the company.¹¹ I think we are beginning to work out how the ultra-rich stay rich.