Common Problems and Solutions in Free-Range Chicken Farming

Free-range chickens are a very popular option nowadays, and many people plan to get into it, but farming them is not as simple as everyone thinks. This is not an indoor setting, and there are many factors that cannot be well controlled, yet they have a big impact on the flock. Let's take a look at these problems below.

1. Disease

Free-range chickens face a relatively large threat from disease. Because they are raised free-range, they basically move around outdoors, and outdoors people do not know what existed in these places before, whether there are disease residues and other such issues. In addition, there are many insects outdoors, and many insects carry toxic pathogens; after chickens accidentally eat them, they may become infected and then fall ill. When chickens are in the wild, they will try eating a bit of anything, so this kind of problem occurs relatively frequently.

2. Variable Temperature

Outdoor temperatures cannot, like a chicken coop, be kept at a relatively stable level through artificial control. Chickens are quite sensitive to temperature fluctuations. When the temperature drops, they are unwilling to move around, and free-range chickens often freeze to death because of this. When the temperature rises, chickens are prone to heatstroke, but because they are free-range, their activity area is larger, and heatstroke in chickens is hard to spot, so when deaths occur, the farmers have no good solution either. This is the problem brought by temperature.

3. Invasion by Wild Animals

Although this problem is relatively rare now, it still exists in many places. After all, even chicken coops have weasels and the like sneaking in to attack chickens, and it is even easier with free-range chickens. Without the protection of a chicken coop, many other larger wild animals may also come to steal chickens, and these wild animals are also very agile. They were already hard to prevent, and now with free-range raising, the areas that can be attacked are even broader. This is the problem brought by wild animals.

4. Rain

Chickens can get rained on, but only occasionally for a short while. If it lasts a bit longer, the chickens may freeze to death. When chickens themselves are dry, their insulation is still decent, but once they get wet, problems easily arise. Although free-range chickens are given some rain shelters, not all chickens will run straight inside, and when it rains, free-range chickens often run into problems because of this, requiring the farmers to rescue them. This is the problem with rain.

The above are some of the problems easily encountered when raising free-range chickens. Free-range chicken farming emphasizes an original ecological approach, so when raising them, try to prevent and address the above problems without destroying their natural growing environment.