How much free-ranging land per chicken do you need to maintain some green plants to eat.

[johndeerelover]

Anyone know about how much land per chicken is needed to keep the land from being totally ravaged? I know if chickens are too intense on an area, grass etc. has no chance of coming up. Maybe someone knows that 12 chickens will do well on 1/4 acre or some type of ratio.

 

[Odelia]

I currently have 6 full grown hens and 7 five week old Cornish crosses in my side yard. It is maybe 18 feet wide and 50 ish feet long. There are some bare patches but for the most part they are keeping the grass short but not killing it.

 

[Den in Penn]

It depends a lot on your climate. I do know that a hundred square feet per bird is the minimum anywhere for any thing to have a hope to survive for any lenght of time, and that would have to be something they don't like in an out of the way place. Last summer I rotated fencing for about fifteen birds. The enclosed area was around sixteen thousand square feet divided into three plots. Worked well while it was wet enough for a plot to recover between grazings. Once it got dry at the end of the summer they started to destroy it. So for my spot on the planet it would seem if its wet during the growing season then a thousand feet would do. Any time or place would be different.

 

[johndeerelover]

thanks for the replies! ANyone else have an opinion on this?