Free-range egg systems offer substantial welfare advantages over cage systems, but the quality of outdoor range and management determines how much of this potential is realised.
Free-range systems provide the potential for significantly better welfare than cage systems, but realising this potential requires active management of the outdoor environment. Hens that do not use the range due to fear of aerial predators or barren, exposed outdoor areas are essentially experiencing the same welfare as indoor birds despite the legal free-range status. Well-designed range areas with trees, shrubs, shade structures and vegetation provide protection and stimulation that drives genuine outdoor behaviour. Predation events that kill range hens cause acute suffering for individual animals and persistent fear in survivors that reduces subsequent range use.