{"id":44594,"date":"2017-01-31T12:34:57","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T17:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/?p=44594"},"modified":"2020-11-03T02:26:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T07:26:14","slug":"free-range-vs-pastured-poultry-whats-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hobbyfarms.com\/free-range-vs-pastured-poultry-whats-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Free-Range Vs. Pastured Poultry: What’s The Difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Backyard-poultry enthusiasts often confuse the terms “free-range”<\/a>\u00a0and “pastured<\/a>” poultry and wonder which of these husbandry styles is applicable to their own backyard flocks.<\/p>\n

As a reminder, there is no perfect animal-production system. Sickness and death are part of animal agriculture. Therefore, our goal is to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of different husbandry systems with respect to poultry health, food safety, welfare, production efficiency and the environment in order to mitigate any potential problems. Regardless of which method you use, having knowledge of different approaches and an open, curious and critical mind are essential for the overall health of your flock.<\/p>\n

What Is Free-Range?<\/h2>\n
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School of Veterinary Medicine\/U.C. Davis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a general sense, free-range is a loose term for any system that does not use cages and provides access to an outdoor area that is fenced in and may also have some type of netting or fencing over it. Free-range chickens are housed in a stationary indoor space with nest boxes<\/a>, perches and often unlimited access to the fenced and\/or netted outdoor space.<\/p>\n

Your setup may be very similar to this except that you keep your flock in a protected coop at night as opposed to giving them 24\/7 access to the outdoors. By providing an area outside the coop that is fenced or netted in, you mitigate the risk of mortality from predators<\/a>, which is the most common cause of mortality for poultry raised outdoors, based on our lab research.<\/p>\n

What Is Pastured Poultry?<\/h2>\n
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School of Veterinary Medicine\/U.C. Davis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pastured poultry is similar to free-range with respect to access to the outdoors except the birds are typically housed in a mobile coop<\/a> with nest boxes, perches and shelter. The coop is movable because if it and the flock were left in the same area, the pasture would eventually be denuded by the poultry. A mobile coop can be easily moved as necessary to a new patch of pasture and let the older patch recover.<\/p>\n

In a typical pastured system, the birds spend the night in the mobile coop and only have daytime access to pasture. Keeping birds locked up at night reduces mortality from predators and is more secure than giving your flock 24\/7 access to the outdoors.<\/p>\n

Considerations For Mobile Coops<\/h3>\n

Many mobile coops have slatted floors, which allow the manure to drop down to the pasture. While this is ideal from a fertilization perspective, those same slotted floors can also allow wildlife to get into the coop, meaning predation of and disease transmission to your birds. Poultry also often congregate under the slotted floors during the day to seek shade and shelter, so any chickens still in the coop will defecate on the birds underneath them, increasing the transmission of diseases within the flock.<\/p>\n

For these reasons, solid floors are often ideal for pastured-poultry flocks. However, if you still want to use slotted floors, consider offering shade and shelter in multiple locations\u2014think trees or man-made structures\u2014to draw the birds away from the mobile coop. This has the added advantage of increasing the area the birds are defecating in.<\/p>\n

The Pasture Advantage<\/h3>\n

Advantages to raising poultry on pasture include reductions in feed cost and changes in the nutritional content and characteristics of eggs. Specifically, eggs from pasture-raised chickens have been reported to have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin A and vitamin E, all thought to be beneficial for human health.<\/p>\n

As the name implies, you need to have pasture to have pastured poultry. In your backyard, you can use your lawn as a pasture. However, you should also consider supplementing your flock\u2019s diet with commercially available all-purpose forage mixes. While chickens do eat grasses, most of the nutritional value they get is from the seeds and insects in your pasture, which are more common in diverse environments. If your backyard lawn does not have much variety, consider reseeding it with a commercial pasture seed mix.<\/p>\n

Working With The Weather & Land<\/h3>\n

Chicken keepers in the western U.S., which is going through a historic drought, may consider trying a seasonal pastured system, where you plant your pasture in the fall and use minimal irrigation until late spring. By allowing the pasture to die off in the summer, you can have a hybrid nonpastured poultry system during the dry months and then re-seed again in the fall in anticipation of the rainy season. Water savings can be significant, and this modified approach reflects the importance of considering different options that dovetail with your specific environment.<\/p>\n

Most pastured-poultry operations utilize a pasture rotation system to prevent overgrazing of their pasture and to fertilize the land in a systematic way. While there are no set guidelines as to when or how often to rotate pasture, the simplest rule is to never let the pasture grow below 2 inches. Based on that rule and allowing a minimum of 5 square feet per bird on the pasture, you can experiment and develop a rotational system that works for your backyard.<\/p>\n

Wildlife Control For Chickens<\/h2>\n
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School of Veterinary Medicine\/U.C. Davis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps the biggest hurdle faced by backy-ard enthusiasts who do some type of free-range and\/or pastured poultry is wildlife control. Anecdotal and survey-based observations indicate that predation is the No. 1 cause for mortalities in these systems, so if you live in an area where predators including coyotes, bears, skunks, opossums, raccoons and hawks are common, you should consider the following preventative measures.<\/p>\n