The way chickens are raised – it’s up to you what you choose.

As the world’s population continues to grow, so does the demand for protein, so we buy more and more eggs. Everyone knows they come from a hen, but not everyone is interested in the conditions under which the hens lay them.

Floor / barn husbandry:

At first glance, floor housing sounds good. However, on closer inspection, you can realise that the chickens are not particularly well off in this type of housing. Although at least one third of the floor must be strewn with straw, sand or peat, the rest of the area consists of grids under which the droppings pits are located.

Moreover, such a henhouse can accommodate up to six thousand hens. Exactly nine hens can be kept in one square metre, but in a multi-storey poultry house up to 18 hens can be kept in one square metre. The chickens in such a coop can barely walk, bathe in sand and flap their wings.

Many animals quickly become stressed and overwhelmed living in such conditions and having to share space with so many other chickens, so they often pluck out the feathers of themselves or their conspecifics.

In addition, many bacteria can multiply in such conditions when so many chickens live side by side and produce large amounts of water vapour. Eggs from barn-raised chickens carry a “2” in the egg code.

Free-range

Free-range chickens live in an enclosed coop, like floor-raised chickens. However, there is a big difference between the two systems: free-range animals, as the name suggests, are allowed to leave the coop during the day and roam outdoors. They have a large meadow to themselves where they can move around freely. Each hen must have at least four square metres of outdoor space, which is significantly more than in a barn.

This outdoor space must be available to all hens for at least eight hours a day, regardless of the weather.

There are also situations when the hens are not allowed outside, and the authorities order them to be kept indoors. However, so that the animals can move around, such a poultry house has a “winter garden”. This room has daylight and is well ventilated. It takes up about half of the indoor area of the house. The code of the egg begins with a “1”, which indicates free-range husbandry.

Organic farming

Organic rearing is primarily characterised by its naturalness. The chickens eat only organic feed and are treated only with natural and homeopathic medicines in case of illness. Hormones and antibiotics are prohibited in this type of breeding. Compared to floor and free-range farming, the available space is even larger, as no more than six hens per square metre can be kept in a poultry house.

The chicken flock is therefore smaller than in other types of husbandry and can number up to 3,000 birds. The perches are slightly longer – each hen should have 18 cm of space for itself. As with free-range husbandry, there is also a large outdoor area in organic husbandry. In at least four square metres, each hen can peck and forage for food without worry.

The producer code on the egg bears a “0” right at the beginning.

As you can see, organic and free-range farming differ in the way they are fed and the restriction of antibiotics. Also, in both cases, the hens have access to a large outdoor area.

Floor keeping is indeed the most productive because such a quantity of hens really “produces” a lot of eggs – but is it all about quantity?  Don’t forget that an organic hen means not only better feed, but also better living conditions, which affect the taste of eggs and poultry meat. Organic eggs taste more aromatic. This is because the feed contains more plant-based ingredients. So, do we want chickens to be just machines that lay average eggs? Decide for yourself! 🙂