run size

[jennybain]

I was wondering if someone could tell me if my 8ft x 7ft run is big enough for my 3 Warrens? Mostly they are allowed out to free range in the garden but with Spring approaching, I want them to remain in the run for a good part of the day to prevent them digging up all my veggies. Should I make the run bigger - they seem happy enough.

[Bephlam]

Sounds fine to me -

[MaureenHall]

sounds fine to me too, I'm sure they'll be happy

[vicky]

I'd agree it's fine as long as they can scratch about they'll be happy!

[jennybain]

good good. I do worry about them being happy. Like an over-protective mother.

[Noodle]

I think we all do! Yours have 18sqft per bird, that's loads! Mine have 12.8 and I want to make it bigger!

[hawthorns]

im going to be getting 2 more chickens to make my brood up to 4. im going to still use the eglu but i am going to construct a run for them so they can stay in there all the time. mine will be 14ft by 5 ft so they will get approx 17 sq ft per bird

[jennybain]

that's useful to know, looking to the future, if and when one of my birds dies, I would probably get 2 new ones to add to my remaining 2 (it is better to introduce an equal number of new ones, right??). So my run size might be big enough to accomodate 4.

I read recently that I shouldn't expect my Warrens to live all that long due to the stress of producing a high number of eggs. Does anyone know if this is right? They are almost 1 year old now and came from a farm, not ex-battery.

[Flummery]

They don't live as long as pure breeds Jenny, but they've been known to get to 5 or so - even more in the odd case. They get far more TLC with a back-garden chicken-keeper than they would on any farm so they should be with you for some time yet.