If you want to know more about nesting boxes and what to do with your freshly laid eggs, read here. In terms of roaming, each chicken, at a minimum, will require 15 square feet. A ten-foot-long by a nine-foot wide strip of grass would meet this. But, if you want to make your chickens happy, the more room you give them, the better!
Now, where and how you allow your chickens to roam is up to you. Because they are filthy… Also, if you give them more room to roam, they will have more fun. We gave our 12 chickens over square feet to roam in, and each day is like a huge adventure for them!
You may have seen the way some chickens in commercial operations are kept. They are in tight quarters, beak to beak or lack thereof , and they are pumped full of antibiotics. Small spaces are prone to attract mold, mildew, bacteria and cause upper respiratory infections, among other things.
These types of conditions also promote the spread of parasites amongst your flock. All of this talk about how much room chickens need to lead us to an interesting debate here at The Happy Chicken Coop. For instance, in the EU , a hen needs a single square foot of floor space inside and around 13 square feet of outdoor space.
Ideally, this would be without a run keeping them in. So there you have both the short version and the long version to exactly how much room chickens need. Leave us a comment below, letting us know what you think counts as a free-range chicken…. Do chickens need alot of grass and leaves. Should I have different types of chickens seperated.
Shoul I keep my rooster seperated from the hens. Thanks for the tips. The separation issue, depends on the breeds. I have large and small breeds mixed and they do very well. I think the key is not to have more than two of any specific breed of large chickens in your flock. Yes, thank you for sharing that. My coop is twelve by eight, with a plywood floor.
Floor joists are two by six with sixteen inch centers. Chickens must be able to forage naturally to improve their life quality and diet. I was hoping to show a picture of our finally completed coop but alas…so I will just say my husband busted his butt and our chickens are thrilled and trilling like happy hens.
We have thrown some scratch corn mix in the run as well as some fresh plucked grass my 5 yr old picked. In keeping different breeds separated depends on your plans. For instance we plan on breeding rare and endangered heritage chickens.
In order to keep the breed clean you will need to separate them at some point. No I used to have chickens and they get very stressed in small spaces and have very short life spans so i think no. I was reading your blog and have a question. I have three Rhode Island reds in my backyard. We have a coop suitable for 5 — 6 chickens and we built an extra run, that is probably 8 feet by 4 feet.
Right now they are allowed to roam in the backyard during the day, but they are really tearing up the grass and of course they poop everywhere. What do you think? Hi Kati, I think this will always be a personal decision however I can offer some opinions.
Does the additional run move around your garden or is it fixed to the coop? This way when they tear up a section of the garden- you can move them onto the next patch so the other patch gets time to grow back… Hope this helps! You could build a chicken tractor to put them in. Google it or look it up on YouTube. There are different types. Many are fairly easy and inexpensive to build.
Try are in the most of the day, and I let them into the wider garden for a couple of hours in the evening. They will then wander back to roost fore night before dark.
Since we are north we cannot always let them roam around the yard. Like we use a cabbage as a tether ball and we have extra perching areas and I am thinking of adding a swing this year. We also give them a flat of different sprouts to help with fresh greens.
Sprouts are easy to grow and very healthy for both us and the birds. Hi we just recently bought two chickens, a hen and a rooster and since we havent found a good place to put them at the moment since we live in Canada and its winter, is it ok if we put them in a small space approximately the size of a medium box. I have 6 Rhode Island Reds and 2 Buffs.
They will be allowed out in the run during the day, and will use the coop obviously at night and to nest. Is this big enough? Just make sure they have plenty of space to roam during the day.
Even still our flock of 35 stays on the few acres directly around our house. It can be a risk but they are sooo much happier and healthier having limitless space to forage! I have a cochin that recently starting laying tan eggs instead of brown. The best way to check if they have mites is to give them a physical inspection. Pick them up and really rummage through their feathers to spot any infestations.
I have also sent you an email with a useful article! Will they eat my berries, or will they help them fertilizer and bugs? Hi Hank, If you have hawks in the area, to be on the safe side I would always recommend keeping them in a fenced area. They will certainly help your garden and keep the pests away, but will also go after the blueberries! We have not got hens yet but I was thinking of getting leghorns to begin as we want eggs I was hoping to then expand to 10 hens and was wondering if 2 chicken coops would be OK as I am making the first chicken coop myself it is about 4ft by 4ft and the run will be roughly square feet and is two nesting boxes enough.
Hi, I have 6 chickens and a fair amount of space. I have a coop for night and they are allowed out on the paddock each day. I am planning to grow a herb garden just for them and am planting red clover and alfa alfa as ground cover. Would I also need to supplement them with feed or will they be able to forage enough food for themselves?? Thanks for your help and all the information you have provided! Hi Trish, It sounds like your hens are treated like royalty!
Have you considered making your own feed Trish? Too much trouble.. Easier to have Modesto Milling send you organic, non corn, non soy feed, even Amazon will send to your door! Then you can get specially formulated seed mix Of chicken forage plants from places like Natures seed, plant flats every couple weeks to give fresh, awesome greens!
Me and my family are thinking about getting 2 rhode island reds. Would it be okay if I let our dogs and our kids out in the backyard to play with them? I got baby chicks and kept them in my shower for several weeks.
I put a piece of plywood across the opening and my labrador dog could put his head over the top. I took him with me each time I checked on them. When I got the 2nd dog my first one trained him and does not let any other dogs near them. We live in Montana where below temps are not uncommon for weeks at a time, never getting above zero. Do I need to insulate the coop and is there an optimal temperature to shoot for in the coop? We are not as far north as you are but I did insulate all the walls of my coop except the southern wall.
I had no trouble with the coop staying a good temperature and only had to add a lamp secured well to avoid fire when the temp dropped below zero. I just got two large Sweeter Heaters, the overhead infrared ones 11 by 40 inches, watts, they work fantastically! Also, being insulated you can use as a brooder as well in the future. I am soon getting 12 chickens and i have a 8 by 11 sized coop.
Any suggestions on how to train our Dog not to chase them once we start letting them out of cage during the day hours. When I first got my chickens, I took my dogs over on a lead up to the fence several times a day so they could get use to the chickens. After a few days of this they seemed to settle down and not fuss with them! Just make sure to keep them occupied and active!
Hello, I have 6 chickens-1 welsummer, brown, bluebell, leghorn, light Sussex and a Norfolk grey. Their run is 4. They free range our garden every other evening for a few hours and at weekends if we are at home are out near enough all day, or at least part.
Their coop is 2. Is this also ok? Coop in middle. Coop not counting nest boxes is like 4 ft by 5 ft. I put a small container of food and water in it at night. And they have large containers for both out during day and are let out every day. They will not be big enough to lay eggs until November. Writing this on July 24th. They hatched June 14th.
They were in the coop inside from age 3 weeks w heat lamp. Carried them out and built fence 1 week ago. My question is, as they get bigger, will the coop be big enough? Have 8 acres How far will they roam and will they return each night?
Not diameter, circumference. You can normally let them roam at around weeks and you will need to keep an eye on them during the first few times they roam to make sure they come back at night!
Hi there! How much space would you recommend for them to have, both in a run and in a coop? We have an acre of land where they could free range, but my sister who is my next door neighbor and on the same property had some of her chickens attacked by dogs. Would it be best to keep them in a run? If you have mild weather and can let your chickens spend time outdoors most of the day, then you can get away with a smaller indoor chicken coop for them to sleep in at night.
Try to plan for at least 10 square feet of outdoor space per chicken. But really, the more space you can provide, the happier your chickens will be. In addition to outdoor space, your coop should have roosting bars—preferably at least eight to 12 inches per bird—so they can sleep comfortably at night. You'll also want to provide a nesting box for every three to four hens.
When it's colder, consider putting a heated pad inside. You might have noticed that much of these sizing recommendations have ranges, and they all indicate that it's better to have a coop that's too large rather than too small.
If you have the space, just go with the larger sized coop. When chickens are cooped up in close quarters for too long without space to move around, they can get a little cabin crazy. They might become aggressive and start pecking each other and even pulling feathers. Stressed chickens might even lay fewer eggs. In general, it's much better to provide too much space than too little. When planning your chicken coop, aim for the biggest size your space allows.
If you can provide room for your chickens to have some outdoor time every day too, that's even better. Just like people, chickens need a little personal space to call their own. Although this depends on the size and numbers of chickens and layout of facilities. Perches Should be around 3 to 5 centimetres wide with rounded edges and height should suit the size of the birds. Should provide enough space for all chickens to comfortably roost at the same time from 15 centimetres per chicken , and enough space between perches to let them get up and down without injury.
Nest boxes Egg laying hens need quiet, enclosed nest boxes. Should be draught-free and lined with clean, dry, comfortable nesting material e. More than one entrance helps avoid bullying and encourages use of the outdoor area. Outdoor area Keep grass short. Long strands can become trapped in the chickens' digestive system.
Size Large enough to allow wet, muddy or barren areas to be sectioned off to recover and to minimise the risk of disease, while still allowing enough space for chickens to roam on good pasture.
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