About how much pasture would you need per chicken to allow them to graze full time without destroying the vegetation completely? We are purchasing several acres and so we will have plenty of space for the chickens at our new homestead, however for a few reasons we can't allow them to fully free range without any fencing. I plan to build them a coop and run, and then allow them pretty much free access to a large fenced in pasture which we will till up and plant with hardy perennial cover crops that fit our region. I know that a rotating pasture is they best way to keep pasture healthy, but just for simplicity if I can avoid that I'd like to. So is there a general rule of thumb on how much space a chicken needs to have to not scratch it all to dirt? For example how many chickens could I keep on maybe a half or quarter acre pasture before the land can't maintain itself?