How much land do you free range on?

[Illia]

3 acres for over 40 birds, they use most of it.

 

[BayouPoules]

Wow! Ya'll have so much land for your flocks.. I be drooling... land envy.. it's a problem I'm dealing with..

How much land does a flock of 30 need to be honestly called pastured? We have ours on an acre. Half is wooded with lots of old layed mulch for scrathing and bugs and half is grassy yard planted with clover and millet ... rye in winter.. It was explained to me by a vet and a farmer that if I had more chickens,. or less land they could not, in all honesty, be called pastured chickens..I tend to agree and that's why we are keeping it at 30... what do you think and why? Thanks for your input.

 

[Scooter1978]

I am considering making a chicken pasture, I decided to translate cow stocking rates to chicken stocking rates.

1. Stocking rate for Improved pasture in my area is 2.3/cow unit. They weigh 1400lbs.
2. Chickens I figured at 6 pounds

Can't remember the exact math from last night but my formula was

Cow weight/square footage of 2.3 acres
Then chicken weight multiplied by that number gave me a number of around 650foot per bird.

 

[BayouPoules]

I am considering making a chicken pasture, I decided to translate cow stocking rates to chicken stocking rates.

1. Stocking rate for Improved pasture in my area is 2.3/cow unit. They weigh 1400lbs.
2. Chickens I figured at 6 pounds

Can't remember the exact math from last night but my formula was

Cow weight/square footage of 2.3 acres
Then chicken weight multiplied by that number gave me a number of around 650foot per bird.

These are some vet thoughtful answers,. I hadn't heard of weight/footage for chickens before.. but it sure holds some thought on the subject... thank you all so much for uyour time and thoughts

 

[Scooter1978]

Every animal will consume a percentage of its body weight for most classes of livestock that number is around 3.5 percent. Therefore I think you could use the formula wherever you are and come out with appropriate pasture requirements to completely free range, just contact your county extension agent for typical stocking rates then break it down from there.