Article 16 Requirements for vegetation and characteristics of open air areas

Open air areas for poultry shall be attractive to the birds and shall be fully accessible to all birds.

For poultry houses subdivided into separate compartments in order to house multiple flocks, the open air areas corresponding to each single compartment shall be separated in order to ensure that contact with other flocks is restricted and that birds from different flocks cannot mix.

Open air areas for poultry shall be mainly covered with vegetation composed of a diverse range of plants.

Open air areas shall provide to the birds a sufficient number of protective facilities or shelters or shrubs or trees distributed throughout the entire open air areas in order to ensure that the birds are using the whole open air area in a balanced way.

The vegetation on the open air area shall be maintained regularly to reduce the potential for nutrient surpluses.

The open air areas shall not extend beyond the radius of 150 m from the nearest exit/entry pop-hole of the poultry house. However, an extension of up to 350 m from the nearest pop-hole of the building is permissible provided that a sufficient number of shelters from inclement weather and predators are evenly distributed throughout the whole open air area with at least four shelters per hectare. For geese, the open air area shall allow the birds to satisfy their needs to eat grass.