Introduction
In this document, I will describe housing designs that give chickens access to green plants in yards or pastures, as opposed to confinement or bare-yard systems. There are a variety of housing styles commonly used for ranged chickens, each of
which is associated with a particular management style that I will also describe. My wife, Karen, and I have been raising freerange hens in Oregon since 1996 and pastured broilers since 1998. We have 700 hens and will raise over
1,500 broilers this year. We have tried many different techniques, and I hope this will allow me to speak clearly about the key points and trade-offs in each of the major range management styles.

I discuss a variety of housing types in this document. I’ve necessarily placed an emphasis on the ones I have used myself, since I have a better understanding of these. The detail or sketchiness of different sections will generally correspond to the
amount of hands-on experience I have with a particular style and shouldn’t be interpreted as a value
judgment.

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