How many square feet per chicken in the run?

[missychicky]

I want my chickens to be as happy as possible and I know one way to do that is to give them enough room to run around in. How many square feet per chicken do you need in the run for chickens to be happy? What is the minimum square footage?

 

[elmo]

10 square feet per chicken is the usual rule of thumb. But you won't be sorry to have more than that. I'd approach the subject from the other direction: what's the biggest run you can reasonably build?

 

[mgw]

I agree with elmo, build as big as you can.

 

[PineappleMama]

Four chickens, 63 square feet in ours.

Good thing since we've got two extras at the moment.