Free-range poultry systems offer behavioral welfare advantages over intensive housing but face their own welfare challenges including predation risk, disease, and inadequate range utilization.
Free-range poultry welfare is more nuanced than the label suggests. Free-range hens have access to outdoor space — a genuine behavioral welfare improvement over cage systems — but whether they actually use it depends heavily on system design. Hens that cannot see range from inside the shed, have too few pop holes, or face overhead predator risk without cover will not range effectively, rendering the outdoor access meaningless. Welfare improvements in free-range systems require design elements that encourage actual range use: multiple pop holes distributed along shed walls, cover in the range area (trees, shelters), shade, and feeders and drinkers near pop holes. Keel bone fractures represent a genuine welfare cost of free-range aviaries — birds falling from perches suffer bone injuries that cause chronic pain. Range quality, not just outdoor access, determines the welfare advantage of free-range over conventional systems.