Topic of the week - Chicken run management

[chickening out]

i usually have about 100 chickens on my property (more fluctuating when it’s an especially cold year), and they have about an acre of predictor proofed land to wander around in during the day. at night, they all sleep inside the house

 

[Ascholten]

i usually have about 100 chickens on my property (more fluctuating when it’s an especially cold year), and they have about an acre of predictor proofed land to wander around in during the day. at night, they all sleep inside the house

Hopefully they are sleeping in the hen house and not your house! Talk about a feather pillow and down comforter, this takes it to a new dimension!

Aaron

 

[Chickenfoot55]

For many chicken keepers free-ranging the flock is not an option, so their birds are confined to a chicken run most if not all the time. All that traffic in a smaller space can throw up issues like the build-up of droppings, mud when it's raining, etc. I would like to hear your thoughts on chicken runs. Specifically:

- How big should you make the run/how much space per chicken?
- How do you predator-proof the run?
- How do you manage droppings build-up and how often should you clean the run?
- What are the best flooring/bedding materials (if any)?

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I'm just starting out but I had two big roosters and one of my cats got dumb and those two roosters stomped my cats butt. That's what he got! He is okay but none of my feral cats go around it anymore. I have not had any predators so far. My one rooster looks like he was a marine lol! He has a flat top comb and really big. I have solar lights all around my coop. The wire is the small square wire that probably cuts their feet if they try digging. The earth under the coop is very rocky and the coop is very heavy. I also have a big metal chicken outside of it looking at the coop. As kso a big chicken wire covered garden enclosure is in the process of going around my coop. Probably next year I will just plant some flowers in there and I will build a separate garden area and let the chickens have the one going in now.

 

[Chickenfoot55]

i usually have about 100 chickens on my property (more fluctuating when it’s an especially cold year), and they have about an acre of predictor proofed land to wander around in during the day. at night, they all sleep inside the house

Your house? Or coop?

 

[Chickenfoot55]

We have a two pen run (25x25 each) connected with a chicken wire tunnel. We have an old canopy over one section of the pen for rain/sun shade. The coop is small with Birdseye sand (similar to peastone). We just started with the sand in the spring but it has been very easy to clean, eliminating most of the smell as the waste dries quickly and can be scooped out with a rake. One pen is dirt that they love to dig in for dust bathes and mud holes when it rains.The other pen is mainly grass. Both runs have trees in or next to them. We also put hawk netting over the pens.

Yes I'm covering mine with chicken wire on the top.

 

[chickening out]

Your house? Or coop?

my house has several spare rooms i has renovated for the chickens!! 100% predator proof, and the more social chicks like to spend time in bed with my wife and i

 

[Feather Mommy]

I have diffrent size coops or domes individual s are rotated in 4x4 x4 at least every other day,for larger groups the pens are 4x4 x8 or ten ft long ,and moved also every couple days to new grass ,,and the yard has electrified netting around the perimeter.

So, the netting is your protection and you have not had anything get through the netting at night?

 

[Ascholten]

Well if the wife likes the chickens then that's good, let THEM deal with her when she gets into one of those moods. Careful about having them in bed though, they like to hog the sheets!! and they absolutely do NOT share pillows.

Aaron

 

[MTR]

i usually have about 100 chickens on my property (more fluctuating when it’s an especially cold year), and they have about an acre of predictor proofed land to wander around in during the day. at night, they all sleep inside the house

So I got room for more

 

[Cooptown Lady]

How do you keep rain from pooling on the tarp roof?

I'm not "chickens really" but I have a suggestion. Insert a board (on its side) the length of the roof underneath the tarp. Make sure the tarp edges are pulled tight and all water should run off.