My first Acreage! Chickens, Goats, and Pasture Questions

[Feanor]

Hello all,

I am buying a house on six acres to move my 1 acre farm into a more spacious abode. I've decided to let my chickens and goats share one mega "run" of about an acre with super fencing and electric hotwires to keep everything safe inside and bad guys out. I can't find a clear answer though on how many square feet of pasture chickens need to keep it "pasture" ... I wouldn't want my goat/chicken run to become a barren 1 acre mud hole. I have 50 chickens and 2 dairy goats in northern Mississippi climate on good, fertile ground.

Would I be better off sectioning a portion of the pasture as a chicken run, and allow the chickens into the greater pasture occasionally rather than full time? There are neighbor's dogs around, so I wouldn't want to let the hens free range outside of the fence.

Anyone who keeps chickens on pasture, I would greatly appreciate your feedback. I think I have too many chickens to bother with rotating them in tractors.

 

[donrae]

I honestly don't know how much space it would take for that many birds to keep vegetation on it, but my thought would be to do a rotational grazing system. Even three sections, put the flock on a section for 2-3 days, depending on how it looks, then rotate. I think a lot of it's going to be trial and error for you, so much depends on your specific piece of land.