moveable grazing pen

[mamaberta]

we live in a municipality that does not support BYC, but my neighbours do, so we are going to give it a whirl.
We have built a huge house for them, "Cluckingham Palace",

but we do not want a typical dust filled run attached to it.
We have a fairly large backyard and were thinking of constructing a 3x10' moveable run that we can rotate around the yard. (and occasioanly permit free-running, but I really like my veggy garden...

so, the questions:
1- is this large enough for 3 layers?
2- do the hens need to be in the run every day?
3- what about chicken poop and 18 month-olds. he generally does not rummage on the ground, but can the poop hurt him if he does?

TIA for your responses!
Roberta

 

[tmb3fan]

Welcome to BYC! Your run size will be fine for 3 chickens. As far as a garden goes, you will need to fence it in or fence in the chickens. I use chicken tractors and still free range, but my garden is now fenced in. Last year the chickens distroyed it. If you free range, your toddler is definately going to step or sit in poop at some point. And at that age, they are still putting their hands in their mouth frequently. If it were me ( and I have 2 kids past toddler stage), I would keep the chickens in a run until your child is about 3. I just don't like poop being drug in the house or found on cloths later, after they have sat on my couch.