Newbies in PA

[spikeanddan]

Ok, here's the deal. We moved north from metropolis Miami, FL to get away from the craziness and hustle bustle of urban living. Now we're in PA and have 3.5 acres. The garden is in and producing. We just bought a coop for 12-15 hens. It arrives on Thursday morning. Now comes the run.

Here's our question:

How much space will we need in the run per hen? I'm sure I read on BYC somewhere but I can't find the thread now. I've found all about burying wire to keep the foxes from digging under and covering to keep the hawks at bay. I just can't find how much room to give the girls for foraging in the grass.

Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks
Spike

 

[peterlund]

Big grin.... There will be NO GRASS in your confined run in a week. This i predict. A run is a place to secure chickens . If you are wanting them to forage and have greens etc, then you will have to (eventually ) open the run and let the birds out.
Congratulations on your escape from urban insanity. ... Welcome to urban insanity.

 

[spikeanddan]

I was afraid of that. We have a neighborhood fox that visits each morning so free range probably won't work. Will they eat garden clippings?

 

[ChickenMammX4]

Our chickens are confined to a large run (6 chcikens, 8' x 16' run) due to predators. We do Deep Litter in the run so they get to forage for bugs, worms, seeds etc from the hay, grass clippings, leaves, straw, pine needles & landscape weeds. We also toss in pulled grass/weeds, veggies from the garden and other kitchen scraps.

All that, along with the poo breaks down into some beautiful compost for the garden!

 

[spikeanddan]

Thank you for the info. It's very helpful.

 

[JackE]

10 sq ft per bird is the recommended minimum space for a contained run. But if you go as large as possible, 12-15 hens will have grass to chew on for yrs. I have a secure area/run surrounded with 650' of electrified poultry net, and after 7yrs, with as many as 25 chickens in there at times, I still have plenty of grass to cut. Put them into too small an area, and yes, they will eat everything.

 

[peterlund]

10 sq ft per bird is the recommended minimum space for a contained run. But if you go as large as possible, 12-15 hens will have grass to chew on for yrs. I have a secure area/run surrounded with 650' of electrified poultry net, and after 7yrs, with as many as 25 chickens in there at times, I still have plenty of grass to cut. Put them into too small an area, and yes, they will eat everything.

My guess is you have maybe 200 s.f. per bird or more! Lucky luck birds. Most of us do not have, or can not provide this kind of space. My smaller flock of girls (5 at the moment) has a 150 s.f run. Not a green in there. And i let them free range daily. Maybe mine could vacation at your house for a month to let the weeds catch up!

 

[spikeanddan]

thank you so much. That's exactly what I was searching for.

 

[aart]

10 sq ft per bird is the recommended minimum space for a contained run. But if you go as large as possible, 12-15 hens will have grass to chew on for yrs. I have a secure area/run surrounded with 650' of electrified poultry net, and after 7yrs, with as many as 25 chickens in there at times, I still have plenty of grass to cut. Put them into too small an area, and yes, they will eat everything.

Out of curiosity...I did the math, hopefully correctly.
650' set in a square/rectangle would be about 26406 sqft?
Divided by 25 is 1056 sqft per bird.

 

[spikeanddan]

Out of curiosity...I did the math, hopefully correctly.
650' set in a square/rectangle would be about 26406 sqft?
Divided by 25 is 1056 sqft per bird.

Wow. That's a lot or area!
I'm thinking along the lines of 10 x 15 or so.