My wife cringes at the sight of a chicken truck, feathers flying as we pass it. For each truck full of chickens, there is one from the other direction passing by empty. We do eat chicken and I love free range brown eggs...it is not that chickens are a food source making her cringe. Stories of how broiler chickens are sometimes ill treated, then packed firmly into open cages for the ride to the processing plant...that is the cringe factor. Tales of chickens escaped from the trucks to become loved family pets are told as well as of Mike the Headless Chicken, living 18 months. Google will find that story right away if you are curious. According to university Internet sources, a good poultry house will have perhaps 0.75ft²(often less) per hen. One British agricultural site recommended about 0.60ft². per hen. We will pay the difference for true yard raised chickens, fence controlled areas for the chickens with less dense populations. In marketing, yard chicken are often called free-range, which they are not. The photo is a quick drive by snap of downed poultry houses. New modern ones already filled the gap at this farm. The new houses were perhaps 60' x 400'.