I have had chicken several times in the past. I had a chicken coop fenced-in that I'm estimating was one eighth of an acre with a chicken coop in side of it that was an 8 by 10. I locked the chickens in at night and let them free range during the day and I got tons of eggs which I would give away. Some kind of animal killed all of them in a short amount of time. After I fixed the fences I got some more chickens and put them in the pen and never let them loose. They ate every single blade of grass in the pen and they would not lay me any eggs. The only way to get them to lay eggs was to buy high-dollar oyster feed which was more than buying the eggs at Kroger. I finally let them loose in the yard and I would find their nest all over the place but I would never eat the eggs because I had no idea how old they were. The yard was not fenced in and most of them were killed. I gave the rest away instead of just letting them get killed or locking them up and not getting any eggs. Now I want to do some chickens again. I have a yard that is 3/4 to 1 acre total and it is completely fenced in and almost chicken proof so that the chickens cannot get out. Does anyone know if this is too big of a yard for 30 or 40 chickens? As long as I locked them up in the chicken house which is an 8 by 10 for a week or two will they not come back to lay in The Henhouse once I set them free.
