The Benefits of Raising Free-Range Chickens

By Lisa V. Blake
Published on February 7, 2011
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This rooster keeps a watchful eye, while the hens enjoy some free-range forage.
This rooster keeps a watchful eye, while the hens enjoy some free-range forage.
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A Golden Laced Wyandotte chicken takes her brood out foraging.
A Golden Laced Wyandotte chicken takes her brood out foraging.
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This hen party is not in search of tea and cakes, but insects and leftovers.
This hen party is not in search of tea and cakes, but insects and leftovers.
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A high-stepping rooster is ready to lead his ladies out in style.
A high-stepping rooster is ready to lead his ladies out in style.
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Chickens can be both an asset and enemy to your garden as they root out pests for a tasty treat.
Chickens can be both an asset and enemy to your garden as they root out pests for a tasty treat.

To free range or not to free range – for folks with a flock, that is the question. Five years of experience raising free-range chickens on my organic farm, Mama Tierra, in Bowdoin, Maine, has led to some useful, albeit hard-won, insights. I did some homework and spoke to other flock owners before undertaking this adventure, but mostly I followed the “Just Lay It” approach and learned by doing. It’s a tried-and-true New Englander strategy that, for better and sometimes worse, can have a long, mild – yet consistent – learning curve.

Before deciding to liberate your fowl to freely follow their bliss, here are a few things to consider for a successful free-range endeavor. First, let’s be clear about what constitutes “free-range.” It is a fallacy to qualify free-range eggs as those produced by hens raised outdoors or that have daily access to the outdoors. This definition is so vague that it can include hens that might only access the same “outdoor” yard day in and day out. Without specifying the size of the space, this may also mean that, within a matter of weeks, the hens are ranging only in grazed-down dirt and their own waste.

The real definition of free-range means allowing the chickens to be truly free to wander where their little hen hearts desire. Let the hens go, and watch where they head. With eyes on greener pastures, my hen friends would come hopping out the door and head far afield for green grasses and into woodlands to follow their instincts to scratch and forage. However, the first stop was undoubtedly the compost pile to check out what kind of chicken dumpster-diving feast might be theirs for the taking. 

First step

One of the first considerations for raising free-range chickens is allowing access to tender green pasture for all birds older than 3 or 4 weeks. They need to be contained and protected at this stage, but putting birds on pasture as chicks lowers the cost of their raising by reducing the amount of store-bought feed consumed. It also encourages the birds’ natural tendency to begin to graze. By eating insects and scratching and pecking in the soil, chickens access protein and many necessary minerals. Time spent on the pasture as pullets yields hardy hens that produce high-quality eggs consistently the following winter when they begin to lay.

At this early stage of the chick’s life, it is important to provide adequate shelter, fencing and protection from both predators and the elements. Consider sowing rye in autumn or a thick early spring seeding of oats to have a well-established and supportive pasture ready for chicks hatched in the spring. Move the poultry shelter often to give the flock clean ground and fresh greens. It is surprising how even a small flock of fledglings can quickly consume every tasty morsel they can get their beaks on.

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