Assume each chicken occupies 1 square foot of space. If you have two chickens and 4 square feet per chicken, the two chickens occupy 2 square feet, which leaves 6 square feet for them to explore. If you have ten chickens with 4 square feet per chicken, each chicken has 30 unoccupied square feet to explore. A greater number also can give more space to position the feeders and waterers properly in relation to the roosts and provide access.
In general the more chickens you have the less space per chicken you need. What is your flock make-up? Adding one rooster to a flock of hens does not greatly increase the required space needed, though it sometimes helps flock dynamics if they have more space. But adding a second or additional roosters can greatly affect the amount of room they need.
Often multiple roosters will split the flock into separate harems with each rooster claiming his own territory. That reduces conflict.
What is the maximum number of chickens you will have. Consider hatching chicks or bringing in replacements. Look down the road a bit. Do you want a broody to raise chicks with the flock? A broody needs sufficient room to work with. The more space you have, the easier it is to integrate chickens. Chickens have developed a way to live together in a flock. But establishing that pecking order can sometimes be pretty violent.
One method they use to take most of the danger out of establishing the pecking order is that the weaker runs away from the stronger when there is a confrontation or they just avoid the stronger to start with. They need room to run away and avoid.
The more space you have the more flexibility you have dealing with problems or altering your management techniques. I'm sure I am missing several components, but the point I'm trying to make is that we all have different conditions.
There is no magic number that suits us all. Is that coddling the chickens or is that not going out of my way to make my life harder than it has to be? Reactions: Trish , Fastrak , Beccackle and others.
Latest reviews allenw 5. Good information. The standard recommendations are a good starting point but one has to temper them with their own knowledge and situation. HeathenHavenHomestead 5. Excellent article - I love how you cover free ranging instead of just runs as mine free range.
ChickChick 5. Excellent information. I'm new here and this answered a lot of my questions. And put me at ease on my 8x8 shed coop for 12 hens 3 are jersey Giants. Read more…. Thanks for the posting -- good article and lots of common sense. Very nice article. I admit I don't wake up early and don't let them out until about 10 am, but they don't mind since they have enough room in their coop Plus I keep their food in the coop, I think that helps, haha.
I would give them as much room as you can, but I understand that everyone has a different way of doing things. This list makes a lot of sense, good job. This helped narrow down this topic for our 1st flock in spring - Thank you.
Excellent points made here. I wish that I read this before I got chickens. Very useful! Great article! Makes one think! I agree the more space for them the less work for me! On the other side of considering space allotment, for example, if you provide the space equivalent of a two-car garage for five hens with several roosting areas means you have the potential of unnecessarily widespread droppings, creating more work for yourself. But this doesn't mean the space can't work.
If you don't plan to add to your flock, you can use a corner of the space to create an appropriately sized coop for the number of birds you have currently, then if you later decide to increase your flock, that is easily done by expanding the coop just enough to accommodate the increased population comfortably.
My neighbor did that and it's working very well. He even built an adjacent "nursery" for pullets that weren't ready to join the others, but made it so they could all look at each other and become familiar safely. I have 8 Isa Brown chicks 3 months old in a coop and run.
The run measures 6 x 12 and the coop measures 5 x 5 x 5. While I think the run could be a bit bigger, it seems to work for the size they are now. As they grow larger, I will try to expand the run. So now, if they are in each other's space, they tend to get mean quite quickly. My advice to any new chicken owners is the more space, the better as soon as possible.
Also your chickens will peck at anything including poop. If the excrement has been left lying around for a while it is the perfect incubator for many disease vectors such as flies. Poop and flies can lead to fly strike on the hens rear end. Chickens that have feathered feet are especially prone to the poop gathering on their foot feathers — this can harden and cause poop balls between their toes which is painful and can lead to infections. Close contact makes it easy for these pests to breed until the henhouse is literally crawling with them.
What is usually seen as a nuisance can become something of a horror story if there are too many hens confined in a small space. This will lead to broken eggs which in turn can lead to egg eating. Once your chickens start eating eggs it can be very difficult to stop them, so prevention is better than the cure. So we have determined that skimping on space is not worth the aggravation for you or your chickens but how do you keep chickens in a small area? With bantams you can build their coop vertically as well as horizontally.
A couple of floors in a bantam coop will give them lots of extra space. If your yard can support three hens then only get three hens — do not buy 10 and hope for the best. If you really do not have the space then talk to locals.
See if they would be willing to rent you a small portion of land where you can place a coop. Finally some folks keep their chickens in the house — it can be done with a few birds and some careful planning.
Unfortunately with commercial chickens most of the birds in these barns never see the light of day or scratch in the dirt. Your backyard hens however live in comparatively natural surroundings compared to these industry raised birds.
There is no set standard for how much free range space they should have and all of the recommended numbers regarding space allowance are just that: recommendations. Fortunately most small flock owners really care about their hens and will give them enough room not only to enjoy but to thrive in. Rotational pasturing sounds pretty fancy but it simply means that you move your chickens aroundto prevent the ground being picked clean.
A fence will keep them in a particular area and provide some protection from predation. I have around 40 chickens and I do not rotate them but they have the run of around 4 acres and have not yet managed to destroy the grass. The second caveat is to make sure that they cannot wander off onto the road or into neighbors yards — this is for their safety and security. In light of the current instances of chicken theft, we recommend that all coops need to be securely locked at night.
The most important takeaway from this is that the right amount of space for your birds is essential for them to perform at their best. They may be flock creatures but they still enjoy the ability to do their own thing if they want to. Chickens and chicks can suffer from a variety of diseases. The effects of these diseases can range from a temporary upset with no long-term effects, to long term issues with health and egg laying.
However it is a vital piece of the digestive tract that serves as a holding place for undigested food. What color eggs can they lay and how did the shell get to be that color? Everyone knows there are three common chicken egg colors white, brown and blue. Very helpful article. I adopted 3 stray chickens a couple years ago. Mixed breeds and not overly friendly. The average garden can accommodate for a few chickens.
This is nothing to worry about as you can lay wood chippings down on the surface of your run. Your chickens will be perfectly happy on this surface as they will still be able to scratch and search for bugs.
I have ordered an eglu cube with a 2 metre run. I intend to keep 4 chickens. The article I just read suggested that 1m squared was ideal. So do you think that I need a longer run?
I intend allowing them to roam a 9 m squared fenced off grassed area when I am home, but they will be in the run and cube when I am out. Limited availability due to high demand.
0コメント