free range eggs will be back on supermarket shelves from today, as measures which were introduced to curb bird flu cases are being dropped. farmers and egg producers have been forced to keep chickens inside since november. sarah rogers reports. free range chickens haven t been able to roam like this since november. they ve been on lockdown to protect them, following the uk s largest ever outbreak of bird flu. today, that housing order has been lifted by the government, meaning some 27 million hens across the uk can flock back to the fields. so, this is the outer disinfection point. any vehicles, personnel, people that come in here, they stop here, they sign in, they suit up. but biosecurity is still very strict. defra, the department for the environment, say although the risk level has been lowered, farmers must remain vigilant. we have a backpack sprayer go round with a disinfectant and disinfect, and then the gate can be opened and head, then, down to the poultry unit.
largest ever outbreak of bird flu. today, that housing order has been lifted by the government, meaning some 27 million hens across the uk can flock back to the fields. so this is the outer disinfection point. any vehicles, personnel, people that come in here, they stop here, they sign in, they suit up. but biosecurity is still very strict. defra the department for the environment say although the risk level has been lowered, farmers must remain vigilant. we have a backpack sprayer go round with a disinfectant and disinfect, and then the gate can be opened and head, then, down to the poultry unit. we ve got animals indoors and outside. this farm in kendal has been in graham wadsworth s family for more than 100 years he s got 16,000 free range chickens. but he s diversified the business into a family farm park to help pay the bills. so, graham, tell me what we ve got here. so we ve got a whole range