What Do Free Range Means

Free range means hens have adequate space to move around inside their houses and have access to an outdoor space where they can roam freely.

What do free range means.

In poultry keeping free range is widely confused with yarding which means keeping poultry in fenced yards yarding as well as floorless portable chicken pens chicken tractors may have some of the benefits of free range livestock but in reality the methods have little in common with the free range method a behavioral definition of free range is perhaps the most useful. The usda says free range or free roaming chicken must be allowed access to the outside but that can be interpreted in many different. Free range poultry must meet legal requirements. The rspca states that chickens must have a defined amount of space no more than 13 birds a square metre be 56 days old before they are.

In practice this can mean the chickens live most of their lives outdoors retreating to their coop only when weather or other factors require them to do so or it can mean the chickens spend all their time in cramped indoor pens that have a small door opened to the outside for just a few. That means that because the usda doesn t regulate the type or amount of outdoor access required these nutritional benefits may not apply to all chicken products labeled as free range. Free range is a term that refers to a method of animal husbandry where animals are able to roam freely outdoors rather than being confined by an enclosure for 24 hours a day.