There are currently hundreds of millions of egg-laying hens in cages in the US alone. Most consumers of eggs–grocery stores, restaurant chains, food service providers–have pledged to go entirely cage-free within the next decade.
Hundreds of millions of male chicks are killed every year in the US. American egg producers have pledged to stop this practice by 2020.
source? If they actually stop doing this I will start buying eggs cheap from the grocery store and not expensive from an acquaintance with pet chickens
source on 70% of egg demand pledging to go cage free within the next decade
source on 95% of egg production pledging to stop male chick culling
But definitely note that even though these are exciting successes,
1) These pledges kick in at various times over the course of the next decade, but they have not kicked in yet. Currently only like 10% of US eggs are cage free. Hopefully that changes, but right now you can’t go to a grocery store or restaurant and expect to get cage free eggs unless they explicitly say so.
2) Just because they plan to eliminate a few particularly bad abuses doesn’t mean factory farmed laying hens will lead idyllic or even net positive lives. I think they will still be much worse off than your acquaintance’s pet chickens.