Getting free range chickens to go outside

Graham Knight

Extract from a letter to the Institute.

I understood that large free range systems unavoidably discourage hens from roaming.

But we have all been duped.

With my own eyes, I have seen thousands of hens roaming hundreds of yards from the house with no inducement besides grass and fresh air.

Not only that but they have no restriction on movement apart from the boundary fence. They are free to go outside at all times - night and day, summer and winter.

'Most large free range poultry houses have the feed trough as far as possible from the exits to discourage roaming'

The 'secret' of true free range is in the design of the poultry house which must deliberately discourage them from staying long inside. Most large poultry houses have litter underfoot and the feed trough as far as possible from the exits. Some managers have admitted to me that they don't want the hens to roam as it increases feed consumption. My new information suggests that the real difference in food consumption is in fact very small with the system I have seen. The extra energy for exercise seems to come from the increased grass consumption.

It seems to me that such is the wish to believe that genuine free range is vastly more expensive than battery, that many leading lights in the poultry industry have convinced themselves that this is so, and in the process have convinced many working for the industry with all sorts of dubious 'facts'.

Graham Knight, 15 Sandyhurst Lane, Ashford, Kent TN25 4NS (tel 02336 26677).

Getting free range chickens to go outside

Graham Knight has developed and sells a new type of garden hen unit for up to 5 hens. It looks like a lightweight circular playpen made of plastic tubing and netting, with a small hen house made of ply and timber. 'The hens are like mowers and can be moved in less than a minute to a fresh patch of lawn, without forming the usual smelly quagmire. In addition,' Knight adds, 'the hens eat grubs and dig over and manure the vegetable patch. Maybe this is one answer to factory farming of hens.'

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