Free Range Poultry
The benefit of keeping hens or other poultry in the garden is being able to keep them free-ranging.
Sometimes though, whilst free ranging, you need to add in some protections with fencing. Whether that be to protect your prize flower beds or to keep Mr Fox away from having his hen supper.
This selection of articles covers how to keep poultry free range including stocking densities, fencing, pasture management, and much more.
Free Range Poultry Articles
Fencing for Free Range Poultry - Free Range Poultry Fencing
Fencing Protection for Free Range Poultry
Traditional wisdom has always valued the adage, 'Good fences make good neighbours.' As far as the free-range enterprise is concerned, good fences also make good sense! Without them, the depredations of the fox...
Flock Density Regulations for Free Range Poultry
Flock Density Regulations
The European Union free-range regulations require only that the land be 'mainly covered with vegetation', without specifying the type or condition of plants. The Freedom Food directive is more demanding and specific:
Freedom...
Free Range Poultry Land Management
"The poultry-man who adopts free-range methods should move the houses frequently and keep the grass short ." (Leonard Robinson, 1948)
Poultry Land Management is the Key to Success
The key to successful free-ranging is good land management. This applies...
Nature of the Land for Free Range Poultry
The Nature of the Land for Free Range Poultry
It is no coincidence that the great free-range egg-producing areas of the past were in relatively mild areas blessed with free-draining soils. The Lancashire sands and Wiltshire chalks were ideal, providing...
Paddock & Pasture Rotation for Free Range Poultry
Paddock & Pasture Rotation
A field is often regarded as a permanent and unchanging entity. In one sense this is correct, but if the grass is regarded as a crop, it is obvious that it is temporary and must be managed properly on a seasonal basis....
Paddock Management for Free Range Poultry
Paddock Management
After a flock has been moved to a new area, the old pasture should be raked if there are any patches of compacted droppings, and then 'topped’ to cut down taller grasses which may be producing seed heads. An alternative is to graze s...
Sheltered Areas for Free Range Poultry - Free Range Poultry Shelter
Shelter for Free Range Poultry
Land which is to support free-ranging chickens adequately must be sheltered. This does not refer to the obvious need for a house, but to factors such as the availability of trees, walls, windbreaks, shelters and hedges....
