Poultry

5.8.12 Poultry must be reared in open-range conditions and cannot be kept in cages.

5.8.13 Water fowl must have access to a stream, pond or lake whenever the weather conditions permit in order to respect animal welfare requirements or hygienic conditions.

5.8.14 Buildings for all poultry must meet the following minimum conditions:

- at least one third shall be solid, that is, not of slatted or grid construction, and covered with a litter material such as straw, wood shavings, sand or turf.
- in poultry houses for laying hens, a sufficiently large part of the floor area available to the hens must be available for the collection of bird droppings.
- they must have perches of a size and number commensurate with the size of the group and of the birds as laid down in Section 10, Table 9.
- they must have exit/entry pop-holes of a size adequate for the birds, and these pop-holes must have a combined length of at least 4m per 100m2 area of the house available to the birds.
- each poultry house must not contain more than:
1500chickens
1500 laying hens
2000 guinea fowl
1000 female Muscovy or Peking   ducks or
1000 male Muscovy or Peking ducks or other ducks
1000 capons, geese or turkeys
- the total usable area of poultry houses for meat production on any single production unit must not exceed 1600 m2.

5.8.15 In the case of laying hens natural light may be supplemented by artificial means to provide a maximum of 16 hours light per day with a continuous nocturnal rest period without artificial light of at least eight hours. 

5.8.16 Poultry must have access to an open-air run whenever weather conditions permit and, whenever possible must have such access for at least one third of their life. These open-air runs must be mainly covered with vegetation, be provided with protective facilities, and permit animals to have easy access to adequate numbers of drinking and feeding troughs.

5.8.17 For health reasons, buildings must be emptied of livestock between each batch of poultry reared. The buildings and fittings are to be cleaned and disinfected during this time. In addition, when the rearing of each batch of poultry has been completed, runs must be left empty to allow vegetation to grow back and for health reasons. These requirements shall not apply to small numbers of poultry which are not kept in runs and which are free to roam throughout the day.