Let's Define the Term "Free Range"

[OldGuy43]

OldGal and I were talking about free ranging the other night and she was reminiscing about how her family "kept" chickens when she was a little girl. It seems that the chickens only got fed occasionally and infrequently. Other than that they were on their own. No fences, no coop, no limits on where they went, what they ate or where they roosted. They just lived in the wild.

When they wanted eggs they'd send the kids out in the woods on an egg hunt, and yes, sometimes they'd find old, rotten eggs.

When they wanted chicken for supper they'd just grab the first chicken they saw.

Now, to me that's real free ranging.

 

[what did I do]

Now that would never work for us. The hens would be gone as soon as the coons found them.

My hens free range all day but we lock them in a coop for night. We only put a fence up when they are young to teach them where the coop is then it comes down.

once the hens are older they can go where they wish. They stay close to the coop and nesting boxes for the most part. I only sell eggs that are laid in the nesting boxes.

I have read where some call those chickens that live in a run free range chickens.

 

[4 the Birds]

Chickens should have a shelter to go to and a place for you to collect the eggs. I suppose any livestock could survive without a shelter but not nearly as well without one or without your help (food and water). The free range area is best with only a few places to find the eggs; Otherwise, you will be spending way too much time checking egg locations. My birds eat a lot of bugs and vegetation in the fields but I also give them feed daily. They also need my assistance to have water! Without feed during the snow months they would not survive since I am in a northern region. They are fenced to help keep them safe and within a certain boundary. That is my "Free Range".

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are a lot of marketing terms that really don’t mean what most people think they mean. Legally, Free Range means they have access to the outside. If you have a hen house with 5,000 hens and cut a small pop hole that leads to a 4’ x 4’ patch of concrete totally fenced in and covered, those eggs can be marketed as Free Range. That’s not exactly what I envision when I hear Free Range.

My parents kept them a bit like your wife when I was on the farm and growing up. We did have a hen house where most laid their eggs and most roosted, but I gathered eggs from the hay loft and a lot of other places. Many of the chickens slept in trees, even with the temperatures below zero Fahrenheit. The only time they were fed was in the winter when we’d shell a little corn and throw that to them. Otherwise they fed themselves. If the pond was frozen over in the winter, I’d cut a hole in the ice with a mattock in the morning before school and after I got home from school since I got home before Dad from his job so the horses, cows, and chickens could get a drink.

No, I did not walk 5 miles to school in really nasty weather with it uphill both ways. It was a ¼ mile to the bus stop and it was downhill in the morning.

The chickens were not locked up at night. We’d go years between losing one to a predator, but eventually a dog or fox would find them and have to be dealt with.

We lived a few miles outside of not much in pastureland, hayfields, cropland and with woods around, but fence rows were kept cleared out and most people kept dogs trained to not harm livestock but keep other animals away. These were not fancy-pants pure breed livestock guard dogs but mutts that did their job. They lived outside in all kinds of weather and mostly lived on what they caught or on table scraps. If they bothered livestock, they were shot and replaced.

A lot of people hunted, mostly to put meat on the table. But if a “predator” showed an interest around someone’s house, barn, garden, or coop, they were dealt with quickly and permanently. We could hit what we shot at too. My sister was a better shot than I was, at least at still targets.

I can’t let my chickens range here like that. Not because of foxes, coyotes, hawks, things like that. This place obviously is an attractive place for people to drop dogs off and abandon them, although if they took them to the pound it is free to drop them off. When people drop them off out here, three things happen. Coyotes eat them. They starve to death and coyotes then eat them. Or they start to bother livestock, somebody shoots them and drags them off, then coyotes eat them. I tried letting my chickens range but I lost 1/3 to ½ my flock too many times to abandoned dogs. Now I keep them in electric netting.

 

[OldGuy43]

No, I did not walk 5 miles to school in really nasty weather with it uphill both ways. It was a ¼ mile to the bus stop and it was downhill in the

 

[Bens-Hens]

Here we get three options when buying eggs. Being new, I guess my mindset is based around those when it comes to free range.

We get cage, barn and free range. I know that people think of big paddocks and lush grass for free range eggs, but I also know it's not a very viable business model to spend half the day looking for eggs.

We all know cage eggs, then came 'free range' but to begin with it was poorly defined I think, if they didn't live in a cage then they were free range. So then came Barn eggs, which were indoor birds, free on the floor with slightly more generous ground space per bird. I think, although not certain if they leave a door open, they can then be classed as free range and charge accordingly. How much space or how that is worded between barn and free I am not sure.

For us, we raise ours with a coop and wired in run due to local cats and hawks, but we let them out to 'free range' at the end of the day and on weekends when someone is about in the yard. (Spoiling them I know, but with 6 cats loose in our neighbors houses we have to stand guard!)

My 2 cents!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

No feed. No shelter. Just run wild.

To me that is the definition of a feral chicken. While they are certainly "free ranging" they aren't much productive use to anyone either.

My birds in the henyard free range. When I let them out. They have a secure yard and a roost house that keeps them protected from predators along with feed, water, nest boxes, etc. When I am home I open the gate and away they go to roam as they please. Come dark they all go back to their roost house. They lay in their nest boxes so that we don't have to go on an Easter Egg hunt every day. When the range is good they eat less feed. When range is poor they eat more. Egg production remains steady.

 

[aart]

IMHO, it's simply a 'Buzzword' (capitalization and apostrophes to emphasis my sarcastic and complete distain).
Open to vague and varied definition. Frequently used to obscure truth and reality...especially space allocation per bird.

 

[abecca]

Here we get three options when buying eggs. Being new, I guess my mindset is based around those when it comes to free range.

We get cage, barn and free range. I know that people think of big paddocks and lush grass for free range eggs, but I also know it's not a very viable business model to spend half the day looking for eggs.

We all know cage eggs, then came 'free range' but to begin with it was poorly defined I think, if they didn't live in a cage then they were free range. So then came Barn eggs, which were indoor birds, free on the floor with slightly more generous ground space per bird. I think, although not certain if they leave a door open, they can then be classed as free range and charge accordingly. How much space or how that is worded between barn and free I am not sure.

For us, we raise ours with a coop and wired in run due to local cats and hawks, but we let them out to 'free range' at the end of the day and on weekends when someone is about in the yard. (Spoiling them I know, but with 6 cats loose in our neighbors houses we have to stand guard!)

My 2 cents!

I find that once chickens are big enough, the cats wont go near them... There are a lot of cats around here and I was worried about the same thing. At first they were very curious about the chickens, but I think a flock of chickens can hold their own and the cats don't want to bother.

 

[OldGuy43]

There are a lot of marketing terms that really don’t mean what most people think they mean. Legally, Free Range means they have access to the outside. If you have a hen house with 5,000 hens and cut a small pop hole that leads to a 4’ x 4’ patch of concrete totally fenced in and covered, those eggs can be marketed as Free Range. That’s not exactly what I envision when I hear Free Range.

Agreed, not exactly my vision of "free range" either, but good to know. Now we can say that we have "free range" eggs for sale since our girls live in a run with a little shelter (well, two) to get out of the weather.

Guess I should change the sign

and the business cards, too.

Some of the health food nuts are sooo gullible.