How Many Chickens To Keep The Run Green?

[Mtn Laurel]

One thing I''m wondering is...why do chickens tear up plant roots?
I'm thinking they are much more interested in looking for bugs to eat than eating plants, so they root up all the plants looking for bugs.

I agree that they want the bugs and I guess they just can't help themselves from tearing up the plant roots. But, I know they love the plants, too. I guess it might be the one chicken "design-flaw" that they destroy one thing they want to get to something else they also want.

I try to assist in their efforts by putting a lot of autumn leaves in the run. That encourages the leaf eating bugs, worms, and critters to make themselves available and gives the girls something to scratch through. It also helps when it rains and rebuilds what soil the girls leave behind. I "mow" the leaves with a lawnmower that has a bagger and then throw them in the run - easy! They're partially chopped that way and the chickens have a blast!

 

[Vreed77026]

We will be building a a 6'x12' coop. I'm only starting with 7-8 standard laying hens this year, and might pick up 3-4 chicks every couple years to keep the eggs coming for a time. These will be pets and I intend to keep them well after their egg laying days are done. I'm not going to have more than 20 hens max or less, though I have plenty of room to expand if needed (I have 5 acres).

All this said, I'm trying to decide how big to build our run. As much as I'd love to simply free range, we just have SO MANY predators around here for the good of any chicken. So a run is a must. I would LOVE to make it big enough so that the grass stays MOSTLY green. Some brown patches are fine, but I just want the chickens to have some green. And I like to see some lawn too.

So my question is how much space in the run per chicken is needed for it to stay mostly green? And what dimensions would you recommend for say 16-20 hens, considering that I will have to wire the top, too (we have LOTS of red tail hawks and coopers hawks). Any thoughts or advice on this would be awesome!

I have 6 hens, 2 permanent run areas plus my garden each approximately 16x32 feet. Each run is separated by green garden fencing. I rotate my hens each week. I just remove the gaden fencing for whatever area I want them to be in and block off the area that I dont. This way no one area gets overly worked. The outter perimeter is 1x2 welded wire attached to T posts. During the fall (around Sept/October here in SE Texas) I turn them loose in my garden and heavily reseed their other 2 runs. This way by the time Spring comes their runs are full and lush once more ready for them to tear it up again. The area around their coop is just dirt and I leave that to them adding DE earth for their dust baths. Have lots of predators but so far beyond 2 stray dog attacks and one rat snake, I've not had a problem with the coyotes, foxes, or hawks. I pull their food and water every night and lock it up after Ive locked them up in their coop. I also have a camera and baby monitor inside their roosting area. I like to know which of my ladies is laying and can SEE what's going on if there's a commotion at night. Yes they're very spoiled.