What is the difference between closed semi closed and free range poultry raising
Time : 2003-11-19

Basic information

Majority of these chickens housed in closed range are kept in battery cages, and they are the predominant form of housing for laying hens worldwide. They reduce aggression and cannibalism among chickens, but there are restriction of movement, prevent many natural behaviors. Currently, approximately 95% of eggs in the world wide were produced in battery cages. It is now globally accepted as the best way to rear birds to keep them safe and healthy

Semi closed poultry housing is a system that is common among small scale poultry farmers. This system of poultry rearing is partly free range and partly intensive type. In this system, there is a poultry house followed by a run while free range denotes a method of farming husbandry where the chickens can roam freely outdoors almost all day, rather than being confined in an enclosure for 24 hours each day

On many farms, the outdoors ranging area is fenced, thereby technically making this an enclosure, however, free range systems usually offer the opportunity for the extensive locomotion and sunlight that is otherwise prevented by indoor housing systems. Free range may apply to meat, eggs or dairy farming. The term is used in two senses that do not overlap completely, as a farmer description of husbandry methods, and as a consumer description of them

In free range chickens are permitted to roam without being fenced in

The shortcoming is that the chicken's physiological condition and production performance are affected by changes in external conditions in open management, and the chicken body is likely to be infected by various means such as insects, birds, soil, air. The seasonality of production is extremely obvious, which is not conducive to balanced production and guarantee the normal market

What is the difference between closed semi closed and free range poultry raising


Major differences between the three ranges

1. Closed range

Chickens raised in closed range poultry have almost no opportunity to live naturally, and sometimes share their cages with dead chickens. Closed ranged or caged chickens are usually kept in battery cages in all their entire productive life, they cannot practice cannibalism (i.e. they cannot peck on one another), they cannot easily fall sick,  and are they denied natural behaviours like roosting, nesting, perching and bathing. The features are as follows

1. Increased hygiene resulting in a much lower incidence of diseases in which the infectious agent is spread through the droppings

2. Small group size resulting in a low incidence of social friction

3. Ease of management

4. Absence of litter problems

5. Better working conditions

6. A much lower cost of production

2. Semi closed range

Chickens that are raised in a cage free range poultry lives in aviaries that is large enough to hold thousands of chickens. These are industrial barns where there is about 1 square foot of space available per hen. A research carried out for a sustainable egg supply found that benefits of semi closed or cage free aviaries for the birds include more natural behaviour, stronger bones and more feathers. But cage free birds also face risks mortality rate is much higher (slightly more than 10%) than caged birds (about 5%) because of pecking by other birds. And without access to the outdoors, the quality of indoor air in aviaries can be poor. The features are as follows

1. The chicken house has a natural conditions such as light, temperature, which are suitable for the growth of the flock, as with the open house, natural conditions can be used to meet the growth and production of the flock

2. When the natural conditions are not suitable for the production and growth of the flock, if the temperature is low, the heating equipment can be activated to provide suitable temperature for the flock to produce

3. When the temperature is too high, the cooling device can be started and ventilated. The equipment is cooled and ventilated to provide a suitable environment for the flock to produce; when the external environment is free of wind, the ventilation device can be activated for ventilation

3. Free range 

In free range, the chickens have access to the outdoors. However, there is no other requirement around this access. While free range chickens have some opportunity to experience natural behaviours. In fact, a majority of free range chickens actually do not venture outdoors because the outdoor environment is often simply a fenced porch with little to no grass, bushes or worms. So in practice, free range and cage free provide the same living conditions and their features are as follows

1. They eat less feed due to their nature of free roaming around

2. They control pest by feeding on it

3. Less space required in coop

4. They practice cannibalism (the act of pecking one another and feeding on their eggs)

5. Eating unwanted plants such as gardens, flowers and herbs

6. Making a mess and scratching in landscaped areas

7. They step on their manures

8. Noisy when needing to be in coop

9. Eating harmful stuff such as rat poison, grass that contains chemical used for killing grass 


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1. Steel structure poultry house, opening type for hot countries and close type for cool countries

2. Poultry hatching equipment’s capacity of eggs up to 120,000+ to be hatching house

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5. Paper egg tray manufacturing equipment, the output from 1000 trays per hour to 6000 trays per hour

6. Egg processing equipment from automatic egg collection to packing egg to trays

7. Chicken slaughtering equipment from slaughter to vacuum package

8. Chicken manure cleaning and drying equipment to control the water content in chicken manure between 10% and 40%

9. Other poultry farm equipment are coming soon...

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Frequently ask questions

Q: What is the disadvantage of rearing chickens in a free ranged house?

A: The chickens can easily get infected with disease and it is hard to find out the particular chicken that infected others 

Q: What are the major problems faced with rearing of chickens in a free ranged house?

A: The chickens tends to practice cannibalism which is the act of pecking on one another and feeding on their eggs. Also, they can easily step on their eggs thereby causing massive breakage of egg which made lead to loss

Q: What is the best way one can use in rearing of chickens to limit loss?

A: For a better production of poultry product, I will advise to make use of a battery cage because it helps in preventing the chickens from easily falling sick, it helps in the production of clean eggs and also limit egg breakage

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