How much land to avoid bare ground

[Beeottfirst]

There may not be a "scientific" answer to this question. But here it is. I have 10 chickens, 9 hens and a rooster. They are currently in a 6x12 (72 sq ft) chicken tractor that I move almost daily. If I don't move it at least every 1-2 days, they scratch the ground bare. I'd like to "free range" them, but they will still need to be enclosed and covered due to hawk pressure. I want to know how much area 10 chickens would need for the grass to be able to stay ahead of them and to avoid a bare pen. Basically mixed grass pasture, bermuda, fescue, etc. Northwest Arkansas, zone 6 . Thanks!

 

[Beeottfirst]

I don’t have the answer to that but 10 chickens on two acres in NW Ark might do it if you can provide sand beds for dust bathing and convince them to use them only for it.

 

[Sally Winter-Swink]

No helpful answer but a related question. I have 12 hens and one rooster. They are enclosed in a 50' x 20' run with a coop in the middle. Sadly they cannot free range because of a neighbor's dog. (He killed my last flock.) The run is bare dirt because whenever I try to grow poultry-friendly grass they eat it before it's half an inch high. They get plenty to eat - commercial feed, home-ground feed with mealworms, hay bales to eat, scratch, and climb on, cornbread, and safe table scraps - but they want grass desperately. Any suggestions on how to grow grass or some other alternative to give them greens?

 

[Ridgerunner]

In a run that size fence it so you have 2 or 3 separate plots. Let them in one while the other is growing grass.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

No helpful answer but a related question. I have 12 hens and one rooster. They are enclosed in a 50' x 20' run with a coop in the middle. Sadly they cannot free range because of a neighbor's dog. (He killed my last flock.) The run is bare dirt because whenever I try to grow poultry-friendly grass they eat it before it's half an inch high. They get plenty to eat - commercial feed, home-ground feed with mealworms, hay bales to eat, scratch, and climb on, cornbread, and safe table scraps - but they want grass desperately. Any suggestions on how to grow grass or some other alternative to give them greens?

Could you put a screen over it? (Wood frame, screen on the top, put it over the grass you want to preserve so they can nibble the bits that grow through but can’t destroy the roots?)

 

[NatJ]

No helpful answer but a related question. I have 12 hens and one rooster. They are enclosed in a 50' x 20' run with a coop in the middle. Sadly they cannot free range because of a neighbor's dog. (He killed my last flock.) The run is bare dirt because whenever I try to grow poultry-friendly grass they eat it before it's half an inch high. They get plenty to eat - commercial feed, home-ground feed with mealworms, hay bales to eat, scratch, and climb on, cornbread, and safe table scraps - but they want grass desperately. Any suggestions on how to grow grass or some other alternative to give them greens?

If you want them to have grass, can you let them out briefly each day, under supervision, so they can eat some grass then? (That works if your presence is enough to keep the neighbor's dog away.)

You could grow grass outside their run and bring it to them: either dig up chunks of sod, or cut the grass with a mower and dump it in their run. If you use the mower, cut frequently enough that the grass blades are short, so they won't make tangles in the chickens' crops.

You can give them pretty much any green leafy vegetable that is safe for people to eat (lettuce, cabbage, leaves of pea or bean plants, etc.) If you grow a garden, you can toss them the less-than-perfect greens. Chickens won't mind a few bugs or slugs in their greens. Many kinds of weeds are also safe for chickens to eat, so you can toss them in the run as well.

And, as other people suggested, you could divide the run and grow grass in each part in alternation, or grow grass under a wire mesh cover so the chickens cannot eat it down to the dirt and then scratch it up.

Of course you could also build a bigger run, but I imagine you already thought of that.

 

[RoyalChick]

I have seven hens. They have about 1,700 square feet in coop and covered run and about 5,500 square ft inside an electric fence.
Inside the fence are a couple of trees and shrubs that provide protection from hawks and a lot of old garden furniture living out its last days as chicken shelters.
With that space my lot have really only worn down a couple of favored dust bathing sites.
Everything else seems to survive their digging and grazing.

 

[AGeese]

There may not be a "scientific" answer to this question. But here it is. I have 10 chickens, 9 hens and a rooster. They are currently in a 6x12 (72 sq ft) chicken tractor that I move almost daily. If I don't move it at least every 1-2 days, they scratch the ground bare. I'd like to "free range" them, but they will still need to be enclosed and covered due to hawk pressure. I want to know how much area 10 chickens would need for the grass to be able to stay ahead of them and to avoid a bare pen. Basically mixed grass pasture, bermuda, fescue, etc. Northwest Arkansas, zone 6 . Thanks!

I'm curious about your breed(s) and your predator load. I free range by day and have 7 hens on over 3 acres. They mostly stick around the house where they have places to hide occasionally they'll take a trip afield usually later in the day.