How much room to not scratch bare?

[fruitylou]

I am going to fence about 600m2 of land for chickens, and in the winter months they will also have access to an extra acre. How many chickens could I keep on this space without it being scratched bare? I would like to have 6-8 for eggs and some for meat. What do you think? It's tough grass and well draining land. I have read loads of books and trawled through the net but I've still no idea. Any ideas or guesses welcome, thank-you. Lou

[chris]

Cor! They'll be happy hens

The commercial min space requirements to be classed as free range is 1m^2 per bird.......

[polo]

I have no idea how many overall - I'm sure one of the others who keeps lots of hens will advise. One thought was that maybe I would section it into two or even three parts so that I could rotate and rest the ground.

You will easily be able to keep 6-8 layers on 200m2 on rotation - plus some meat birds but from what I understand you will need to restrict the meat birds somewhat to stop them becoming too lean.

Sounds great!

[Glutton4...]

That's about the same sized area that my Chooks have. Half is bare but with weeds, the other half is grass. This time of year the soil and weed area is mucky, but the grassed area is still fine. I mow it periodically, to keep the weeds down, but that's all. For most of this year I have had around 20 odd chickens and 2 Geese on there, and the Geese are messier than the Chickens. I would say that you could keep 10 Chooks on your patch with ease, especially if you could divide it and use half at a time. If you could rest most of it and use the other 'extra' acre over the winter, I would say you could probably double that. If there are trees and shrubs for them to scratch around under, then they'll be very lucky Chooks!

[fruitylou]

Thanks for the replies, I had been wondering about resting the ground and whether splitting into 2 may work out ok? The extra winter ground would be the area I plan on keeping some geese in during summer so it would depend on how much the geese churn it up and resting that for a couple of months. There aren't any trees yet but I plan on getting some cheap aldi ones in feb to put in there with a little fencing to protect them. Do you re-sow the bald patches? Thanks for your replies this is a massive project for me so any and all advice is great. Lou

[elizajay]

Do you re-sow the bald patches?

I find my chickens love grass seed so re-sowing is very difficult.

[fruitylou]

I find my chickens love grass seed so re-sowing is very difficult.

Expensive chicken feed

[Glutton4...]

I haven't tried to seed the bare areas, as I know it would be a waste of time. If/when the Chooks are moved, I will rake it over and chuck some seed down, but for now, they are actually keeping a rough, weedy area much clearer than Ma Nature was doing without their help!

Geese will live on grass, but it must be kept relatively short, as long grass can choke them! If the area has been left to grow longer than a couple of inches, it should be mown prior to their being let loose on it.

You also need to bear in mind that they must have water provided, as they need to swim/bathe/paddle and make a mess in one area, as it is natural for them to do so. They will also need protection from Foxes, ie electric fencing.

[RichmondHens]

I am going to fence about 600m2 of land for chickens, and in the winter months they will also have access to an extra acre. How many chickens could I keep on this space without it being scratched bare? I would like to have 6-8 for eggs and some for meat. What do you think? It's tough grass and well draining land. I have read loads of books and trawled through the net but I've still no idea. Any ideas or guesses welcome, thank-you. Lou

Split it into three equal parts. Reserve two sections for your six layers and move them between these two sections every three - four months. They will love having the extra acre to play in over the winter too, just make sure it has plenty of shelter. Hens don't like open spaces that much, preferring to have a few bushes or trees about to shelter and dustbathe under.

The third section can be used for your fatteners, say six cocks, which they can use from hatch to despatch (normally April - Oct/Nov if pure breed/slow growing) and then rest over the winter to take the next batch the following Spring.

[RichmondHens]

I tend to fill in my pot holes where the hens have been bathing, to even up the ground and stop it getting too bumpy for the mower, but don't normally re-seed. I find the grass comes back on any bare patches pretty quickly.

[jessmorris]

Ooo, you lucky folk with all your room. Smallholder pals of mine have 144m square (12m x 12m) plot and this supports around 10 large fowl for half the year. They are then moved to the next plot. The ground is tough hill type grass and gorse bushes with rock outcrops. On that kind of rufty tufty ground the chooks don't scratch it bare but I guess they might if the going was softer. Basically they have a 50m net square for their birds......

[RichmondHens]

Mine have a similar space - I use 50 m netting "squares" for some, but usually abutting another fence or other boundary (it's not electrified, just used as a barrier) so they have a bit more than the 144, and I also only have 6 or 7 in each patch. The issue we have is very sandy soil which gets mined out by dustbathing birds and the enclosures develop enormous craters after a couple of months. Fortunately we also have an enormous population of moles which helpfully chuck up huge molehills everywhere so once an enclosure has been moved I go around with the wheelbarrow scooping up the molehills and using them to fill in the craters!

[chris]

Out of interest, RH how do you keep foxes at bay with so many birds? I'd have thought hungry foxes would take their chances during the day?

Just wondering...

[RichmondHens]

Out of interest, RH how do you keep foxes at bay with so many birds? I'd have thought hungry foxes would take their chances during the day?

Just wondering...

We are very lucky. We do have foxes, but they are very timid and easily scared off by human presence. There is usually someone here most days and I'm very careful to shut everyone away each night after dark. I think if they weren't the fox would be in like a shot. When we had the heavy snowfalls the last two winters we could see where the foxes had been padding round the enclosures during the night. The neighbouring estate also rears a lot of game birds so the gamekeeper is always around with his gun.