If a chicken lived her whole life in a cage, can her meat be considered kosher? Should it be?

I presume that "chicken" (as in meat) typically means hen rather than rooster. Perhaps I'm wrong. However, there's limited title space to write "his or her" anyway. Perhaps people ordinarily think of animals used for meat as being asexual.

(While we're on this topic, here's a bit of word knowledge. According to my dictionary, "androgynous" means having both male and female characteristics.)

If chickens who live their whole lives in cages are permitted to be sold as Kosher, I'd be astonished and appalled. A Kosher beast should be pasture-raised.

and if you got a modern rabbi, you'll find another who disagrees. Why bring my religion into this anyhoo?

most of what makes a chicken kosher boils down to how the bird is fed, housed and slaughtered. The bird must be fed only its natural food--grain, bugs and the like, no reprocessed meal rendered from other animals.

During its life, the animal must be treated humanely (with kindness). If the cage is large enough that the bird can walk around and sit comfortably and flap its wings, that might be considered OK. The term "cage" is one of those slippery words. It could mean an enclosure that is so small that the bird cannot stand up and move its wings--that would probably not pass a kosher test. Or, it could mean a large pen with several dozen birds in it. That would probably be considered a kosher environment.

Many of the reform and conservative Jew I know switch to organic, free-range birds during Passover or whenever they want or need something kosher.

to shop for Kosher or Halal meats because of how the animals are treated and slaughtered. I'd be very sad to learn that wasn't the case and life-long caged animals were indeed kosher. (I will buy organic if I can't buy kosher or Halal.)