User:Cambridgepoultry

Free Range poultry rearing is a method of rearing poultry and letting the birds outside at the youngest age possible usually at about 4 weeks of age, this promotes stronger hens and promoting better feather growth. The chickens reared using this method have shown signs of being sometimes 2 weeks ahead of their barn reared cousins. Only a handful of poultry rearing farms are embracing free range rearing and allowing the birds as much space as possible from as young an age as possible these include Cambridge Poultry www.cambridgepoultry.co.uk Oxford Poultry www.oxfordpoultry.co.uk Ben and Cathy Wetherden www.organicpullets.co.uk and Muirfield Hatchery http://www.theblackrockhatchery.co.uk/

These farms are all embracing the free range rearing method and have found that by rearing in this manner a natural immunity is built up producing much stronger chickens and ready to go straight on to the new range for their new life as an egg layer. The usual breeds reared are the hybrid laying birds like the light sussex hybrid, Black Sussex/Pied hybrid, The Blue Maran Hybrid, Leghorn and the black Neras or (Black Rocks from Scotland) speckeldies and Barred Plymouth Rock Hybrid.