How many could I keep?

[Falkenhof]

I have a little over 1 acre of pasture for my chickens (no other grazing animals).

I feed them free-choice layer, shell, etc. They get a forage block in the run for early morning picking or if they are kept in for bad weather. The pasture is a mix of wild flowers, clover, native grass, and plenty of bugs. They do get a small about of scratch and dried mealworms or kitchen scraps.

I do have sandy soil though. I water the pasture to keep up with the drought and seed it.

I want to know how many I could reasonably keep under these conditions while still maintaining a good pasture quality and plenty of space. I have a small flock on it now of 6 plus 5 chicks (which only 1 is staying), so it will be a flock of 7 eventually.

I want to maybe keep a flock for meat, or something similar of standard size. The current flock is 2 standards and 4 'inbetween' birds. The chick staying is also between banty and standard size fowl at maturity. Typically the birds are on pasture 4-8 hours a day.

Sorry, thats a lot of info, but what size flock do you estimate I could keep?

 

[Mattemma]

I have an acre and have had up to a dozen. I block off areas that need rest/protection from the chickens,and then open it up later.

 

[roostersandhens]

I have 40 acres, and a free - range flock, and my chickens don't even go past 1 acre. I have 21 chickens! So I'd say you could keep 12 - 20 chickens. Good Luck!

 

[Falkenhof]

Thank you!
Its really important to me that all my chickens have the space they should have, but also that my pasture remains tip-top for them.