runs and free ranging

[hisbride]

Wow. I am jealous. We have a wonderful place for our chickens but they have scratched up and eaten every blade of grass. It doesn't help that it doesn't grow grass easily in the first place. We drop in grass clippings and leaves from our lower yard that I know has goodies in it for them. I know free-ranging is kinda an open to interpretation kind of thing. I was just curious I guess as to what other folks think and if what I am doing even remotely comparable.

 

[domromer]

I think all free range means is they are not locked in a cage. My wife spent a summer working in a chicken factory. The hens lived in a huge shed. Their eggs were sold as free range. Maybe things are different now. This was 15 years ago.

My girls are in a tractor for most of the day. Then I let them out into the yard until bed time. I'd consider them to be free range.

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

Quote:
In the business, I don't think things are any different now. I think the USDA just says that free-ranging means the hens must have access to a yard. I have read that hundreds of chickens, with not much room to move, and only one little chicken door to the outside run, can be considered free-ranging. Unless you go and make a site visit and see for yourself how the grower defines "free-ranging", as you can see just from this post, there are about a million definitions.