Chook Me!

what are the advantages and disadvantages of intensive and free range poultry farming?

Public Comments

1. you get lots of yummy chicken to eat? you end up with a lot of pregnant chickens?
2. To us. Bugger all. To the poultry. A better life, better food etc. And actually sometimes freerange does taste better. Apparently in America, free range is not a term used. Shows how ignorent they are.
3. Free range chickens have big houses all others have pokey flats
4. Taste a lot better, more natural and therefor are more nutritious. Other cattle and poultry are fed steriods that just retains water
5. Intensive, Reduced cost per acre of land, reduced housing costs, reduced labour cost, easier to protect from predators. Disadvantage of intensive: more prone to parasites and other diseases. Poorer quality of eggs. Poorer health of poultry. Also, for meat rearing then poultry must not run around too much or they will not put on weight so quickly. Chickens raised intensively for meat have problems with the joints, take a look at some fast food chicken outlets, when you eat the legs, take a look at the joints and you will see inflamation. This is because they are reared really quickly, the meat puts on weight but the bones have not developed at the joints and it causes inflammation.
6. The egg yolks of the free range chicken is brighter colored and stands up much higher in the pan. Fertilized free ranged eggs were used in cancer patient diets. The free range chickens keep the insect populations under control. This is especially good if you have a garden. With the varied diet both the meat and the eggs should be assumed to be more nutritious. The egg shells are harder and thicker on the free range eggs.If you grew up being awaken by the crowing of the Rooster you'd know an extra value added piece of the free range flock. The free range often lay their eggs in out of the way places. You have no idea how old an egg found is. A variety of animals prey on the free range chickens: Fox, possum and mink are just a few . You will lose a few to dogs and autos. The intensive or caged chickens are fed nutritionally balanced diets. They also have medication readily available. Many are egg layers that sap a lot of nutrition from them. They get no exercise to develop their muscles. There is very little loss to predators. Being confined in a relatively small space diseases spread more rapidly. The population can be much higher in intesevely regulated situations. They can be sustained throughout the year with little deviation in production. You will have more eggs and produce to sell. There will be more time spent managing them than the free range poultry. I don't know why the fellow said Americans don't know the term of "free range"? Didn't you ever read about our range wars? Free Range was at the heart of almost every conflict. You should tell the Brazilians and the Aussies that they don't know the term either. They know.
7. Free range poultry just makes a company look better to people like PETA who throw a fit over how theyre raised in a closed space only difference really is that they arent cramped so disease has a lower transfer rate
8. As a keeper of free range chickens for both eating and eggs the differences are immense..... The quality of life for both means they get to go out in an open field every day, scratch about and dust bathe and although the eating chickens gain weight fast the fact they move about helps their joints and therefore they dont fall to their knees.... Free range eggs taste better as the chickens can forage. The only disadvantage I can see is non free range cannot have quality of life are caged in tiny spaces never see sun light. lose all their feathers, peck and attack and even kill each other for that extra bit of space and altough eating chickens only live for about 39 days its 39 nine days of misery. I would rather eat a chicken that has had a good life than one that death was a release too!!
9. Well foilwrapped, free range IS a term used here in the US. I guess that shows how ignorant you are of us Yanks.
10. intensive chicken productions are houses that tyson and other companies buy chickens from. they are monitored closer and they are able to be cared for easier. Also this type of raising is easier to keep track of the chickens and Monitor what they eat and vaccinations. Free Range chickens are harder to keep track of and you would only be able to sell to local people to eat. Big corporations wi.l not buy chickens that have had the ability to eat something harmful. the vaccinations are harder to keep track of and what they eat, Chickens have a hard time digesting fiber so it is easier for them to be on pelleted or granulated feeds. the chicken that you eat in fast food and most in the grocery store are grown in a house, the others are free range in pens and the farmer keeps them inside at night. those would be your organic chickens. for vaccinations being so hard to give the farmer contracts with an organic company and they monitor other aspects to be able to grow a healthy chicken that is safe for the public to eat. Lots of organic dairies have organic chickens. easier to feed and care for.
11. LOL.. Consuming food does not make anyone knowledgeable about farming. Free range 1.requires a lot more acreage and some fencing to keep animals somewhat separated, yet contained within an area. 2.Predators are a huge problem, coyotes, foxes, hawks, etc.. all have access to “meals on wheels” any time they want. 3.Chickens (for example could be any poultry) will back and stack when a predator is in their pen, so if you have say 20,000 in a field they will stack up in a corner trying to get away from the predator subsequently smothering ½ the flock in the “chicken pile”. 4.Feed and water are extremely important to keep clean and disease free which is much more time and money consuming in “free range” . 5.Diseases are extremely hard to control as “free range” it’s impossible to rope and check every chicken in a flock. 6.Completely uncontrolled weather, it could be too hot or too cold and the animals die in either extreme. 7.In a diseased flock, it would have to be destroyed and several acres would also have to be totally disinfected before any new chickens could be introduced. 8.The “pastures” would have to be rotated frequently to prevent the animals from completely destroying the vegetation in any one “pasture”. 9.Huge increase in labor to manage chicken’s in a totally unconfined space. 10.Egg production would be the same, lot’s more labor wandering over acres of ground playing “easter egg hunt” to find the eggs. 11.Fecal matter build up would still be a problem so periodically the “pasture” would have to be cleaned of chicken poop. Chicken poop is very high in some chemicals which would left un cleaned would eventually sterilize the soil and nothing would grow. 12.Huge increase in consumer prices at the grocery store, because due to increased loss of chickens before reaching maturity there would be a MUCH higher per/animal cost at the grocery store to cover the cost of the animal losses by disease, predators, weather, etc. 13.In Chickens just as any poultry,, they have a REAL TENDENTISY to peck on weaker members of a flock. Poultry will actually kill the weaker members of the flock, and if hungry enough they will cannibalize the weaker birds. In intensive poultry production simplest answer is to reverse everything stated above.
12. intensive, fast growing fatty meat free range, slow growing leaner tastier meat.
13. Advantage: They are generally healthier. Disadvantage: They can really ruin a good piece of ground and they take up more space...which costs more money to raise...which costs you and I more money in the grocery store.