What are Free Range Chickens?
Free range chickens differ from barn and conventionally farmed poultry, roaming freely for their food outdoors during daylight hours with safe access to an enclosure during darkness.
Although the outdoor areas to roam are usually enclosed for commercial poultry farmers, for many urban dwellers or lifestyle block owners, chickens are often free to roam the property at will.
During the winter season, many people will allow their chickens to free-range in their gardens. Chickens are omnivores and enjoy searching for and eating insects and can assist in controlling pests that may harm garden plants later in the year. The scratching and pecking of the ground also ensure the ground is aerated and loosened.
Chicken farming was traditionally managed using a free range system until the successful introduction of commercial scale confinement (or intensive farming) of poultry began in 1915. In the early 1930's, the introduction of cabinet incubators (which allows hatching at the same time of large numbers of eggs) further enabled the development of large scale confinement operations keeping chickens indoors throughout their productive life.