The term ‘free range’ tends to invoke images of chickens happily squawking and scratching their way across green pastures.

The reality is often a lot less romantic.

'Free range' chicken farms can now have up to 10,000 chickens per hectare. Credit:Jessica Shapiro

The Queensland government recently approved an increase in the stocking densities for free range layer hens. Where once 1500 chickens per hectare was the maximum, now 10,000 chickens per hectare can claim the same label.

A spokesman for agricultural minister John McVeigh defended the 567 per cent increase as being based on the national Poultry Code “which state governments agreed to implement in 2002”.