Chicken run size

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mistryer

mistryer

Hatching
8 Years
Feb 7, 2011
3
0
7
What's the best size of chicken run for 12 large laying hens and a cock? It will be attached to a large hut. Thanks
 
The bigger the better! The general rule of thumb is 4sq ft of coop space per bird along with 10sq ft of run space. So for 13 birds, your minimum requirements would be a coop that provides 52sq ft of space and a run of 130 sq ft. However if you go with the minimum, you will find they will graze it down to the bare dirt in no time, so the more space you can give them, the better.
 
I am planning a large run for my flock. I was wondering at 625 Sq.Ft. how many chickens should i limit my flock to so that they have enough space to not kill all the grass? I want them to always have fresh vegetation and bugs available. I can't stand seeing chickens in dust bare runs. Also any other tips to keep my flock happy? I was told to place my compost bin in the run and that they would scratch at it and help the process and that they would love the yard clippings and table scraps, is a good idea?
 
theparishfamily said:
I am planning a large run for my flock. I was wondering at 625 Sq.Ft. how many chickens should i limit my flock to so that they have enough space to not kill all the grass? I want them to always have fresh vegetation and bugs available. I can't stand seeing chickens in dust bare runs. Also any other tips to keep my flock happy? I was told to place my compost bin in the run and that they would scratch at it and help the process and that they would love the yard clippings and table scraps, is a good idea?
Click to expand...

Regarding your composting question, look here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/827248/composting-in-the-run

As far as keeping green in the run, I don't think it is possible with the chooks insistent need to scratch. If you were to free range over a couple dozen acers its a different story. Our run is 75x25 feet, just over 1800 sqft, and I've got (currently) 10 hens. There is not a single piece of edible greenery in their run. We have added, what I like to call, chicken garden beds, throughout the coop. This allows greens to grow, without the chickens being able to dig them up. We plant kale, dandelion, alfalfa, clover and different kinds of grass and wheat.





If you want to get away from the bare dust bins you mentioned, we cover our entire run in free yard waste. Pine shavings, fallen vegetation, grass clippings, etc. And if we cant seem to scrounge anything up, a few bales of spent straw or hay works well to keep the ground covered and free of flies.
 
theparishfamily said:
I am planning a large run for my flock. I was wondering at 625 Sq.Ft. how many chickens should i limit my flock to so that they have enough space to not kill all the grass? I want them to always have fresh vegetation and bugs available. I can't stand seeing chickens in dust bare runs. Also any other tips to keep my flock happy? I was told to place my compost bin in the run and that they would scratch at it and help the process and that they would love the yard clippings and table scraps, is a good idea?
Click to expand...

If you look at my "My Coop" page, I have a little different concept than a chicken pen, because I too don't like seeing chooks confined to a dust patch. I call mine a chicken "yard" instead. It is 240 feet long by 60 feet wide. I have over a hundred birds and the only area that has been trod down to dirt is immediately around the coop - the rest is still so lush I have to mow it on a regular basis as I've found if the grass gets too long, they don't want to wade through it, so they will utilize more of the yard if I mow it.

My fencing is 5' high 2x4 welded wire and obviously, is not closed in on the top. Three weeks after moving them in I did lose a bunch of birds to a fox but that was 15 months ago and since then I have only lost one bird to a predator and she was broody out in my pasture, not in the safety of the yard. The only thing I changed after the fox attack was that I started having my two very poultry safe dogs sleep in the yard at night (their kennel or dogloo is IN the yard). Perhaps their scent keeps predators away even during the day when they are not in the yard? I dunno. All I know is that the fox seemed like an anomaly as it hunted during the day and since the dogs started sleeping there, I haven't lost any more birds in the coop or chicken yard.

In the last few months I've also been letting them out to free-range when I can, because although there is plenty of vegetation left in the yard, they had cleared it for the most part of bugs. Meanwhile, walking through the rest of our property, the grasshoppers were hopping all over the place like crazy so it seemed like a win-win to let them out to free-range. Now we have virtually no grasshoppers so everyone is happy
smile.png
. But on days I'm not going to be home much, I still keep them confined to the yard and it is working very well for me.
 

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