As noted above, Soil Association standard 20.7 allows flock sizes in
excess of 500 birds – up to 2,000 laying hens or 1000 meat birds if
further conditions are met. In addition to a demonstrably high level of
management, hygiene and welfare, producers must also comply with
standards on ranging distance. These ensure that colony size is limited
by the amount of pasture within a certain distance from the poultry
house: for layers this is 100m.
The following example provides the ‘best case’ scenario for a static house
in the middle of a large field:
Approximately 3.14ha could be within 100m of a poultry house. To
allow for a nine-month rest between batches, this area will need to
be divided in half. Therefore the colony size must be based on
1.57ha. At 1,000 birds/ha this means the maximum number of
poultry that could be kept is 1,570 birds. If the static house were in
the corner of the only field to which it had access, the maximum
number of birds dictated by the ranging distance is likely to be a
quarter of this. This would mean the numbers are further restricted
to approximately 390 birds. However, this would default to the
permitted limit of 500.
If the house can be moved between batches and access allowed
right around the house for the full life of the flock it can be seen
that 2,000 birds could be accommodated.
Topic: Stocking density for laying hens? (Read 8464 times)
