Just how much room do chickens need?

Before we have ever entertained the thought of keeping chickens within our garden i was lengthy of the opinion that you’ll require plenty of land to help keep chickens- ideally a minimum of an acre of grass. Fortunately, this isn’t the situation (unless of course you plan on keeping a large number of them!) and you’d be amazed through the actual use of space chickens need.

The quantity of room chickens need really depends upon a couple of tips. First of all, are you currently planning to let your chickens to free roam? Next, the number of hrs during the day do you want to keep the chickens within their coop? Finally, the number of chickens would you anticipate keeping?

We begin using the first question…

Will I need Plenty of Land to help keep Chickens?

In a nutshell, no.

Clearly this relies on the number of chickens you want on keeping, so let’s make use of a little example.

I’d reckon that many people who wish to keep chickens the very first time would turn to circumvent six, so let’s use six chickens let’s imagine. Now let’s also presume the chickens are stored inside a coop during evening and therefore are left to roam throughout the day time.

Rapid answer is six chickens would want a coop that’s a minimum of 18 sq . ft . along with a run that is a minimum of 90 sq . ft .. So as a whole that will mean you’d need just below 110 sq . ft . to help keep six chickens. [source]

We give our chickens much more room than this and we’ll discuss our setup later, however like a minimum 110 sq . ft . can get you began.

To answer our original questions: “Can I keep chickens within my garden or will i need acres of land?”. Supplying you’ve a minimum of a 11 feet by 10 feet garden it is simple to keep chickens inside your backyard.

However, should you put 12 chickens in this subject below, we’re sure they will be the most faithful hens you’ve seen!

Now let’s dig much deeper into all of your choices…

How Large Will A Chicken House Have To Be?

How to clarify before we answer this at length- a chicken house may be the chickens’ house where they’re going to roost at night (or throughout the rain!), this doesn’t include their run or other space that they can roam in.

In the coop there is a floor (which we cover with sawdust and straw) along with a roosting/perching space.

The particular chicken house must be a minimum of 3 sq . ft . per chicken. So following up with our illustration of six chickens, the coop must be a minimum of 18 sq . ft ..

Now you may think with chicken coops the larger the better? Now this certainly isn’t the situation. Large chicken coops with simply a small amount of chickens inside them can really be considered a bad factor since the chickens can’t generate enough heat to help keep the coop warm.

Another key item within the coop may be the roosting/perching area.

Roosting Pole © Quiddle

This is when your chickens will sleep and you have to make certain that every chicken has 10 inches of perching space. So within our example you’d require a roosting pole that is 60 inches lengthy (5 feet). You’ll most likely discover that your chickens need less roosting space than this simply because they will huddle together very carefully throughout the night- however again its better to err along the side of caution.

How Large Should A Chicken Nesting Box Be?

Additionally to some coop you will have to make sure you have sufficient space to repair a nesting box towards the back or side of the coop.

You may either possess a large ‘open-plan’ nesting box or separate individual nesting boxes. For the hens there exists a single ‘open-plan’ nesting box however we are planning on altering this and supplying the women with individual nesting boxes to provide them more privacy.

Whatever the choice you are making, you may need a feet cubed of space per chicken inside your nesting box. So ongoing with this example you’d require a nesting box six feet lengthy by 1 feet deep for six chickens. And if you possess the option, come up with individual nesting boxes, your women will appreciate it later!

If you wish to learn more about nesting boxes and how to handle your freshly laid eggs, read here.

Just How Much Space Do Chickens Have To Roam?

When it comes to roaming, each chicken at least will need 15 sq . ft .. If you have 6 chickens you’ll need around 90 sq . ft . (6×15). This isn’t much land whatsoever- a ten feet lengthy by nine foot wide strip of grass would meet this. But, if you wish to help make your chickens happy, the greater room you allow them the greater!

We wouldn’t leave our chickens with simply 15 sq . ft . each- we make certain our chickens have a minimum of 25 sq . ft ..

Now how and where you permit your chickens to roam can be you. You may choose to produce a run, tractor (portable run) or simply permit them to free roam inside your garden- it’s your decision with each having pros and cons (much more about this within an approaching blog publish).

And a fast word of warning if you plan to maintain your chickens inside a run- come up with the run portable because throughout the winter it is boggy also it isn’t fun altering their bedding each night since they’re filthy…

Also, should you provide them with more room to roam they’re going to have more enjoyable. We gave our 12 chickens over 3000 sq . ft . to roam in and every day is sort of a huge adventure on their behalf!

Just How Much Space Will A Chicken Have To Be The Opportunity?

All this discuss just how much room chickens need brought us for an interesting debate at The Happy Chicken House.

I was battling to determine just how much space a chicken must be classed as ‘free-range’.

We are able to take a look at legal definitions, for example within the EU a hen requires a single sq . ft . of space on the floor inside and around 13 sq . ft . of outside space. However, what the law states doesn’t stipulate how frequently the chickens will need to go outdoors- it’s in the farmer’s discretion.

And in america the Department of Agriculture defines free-range like a chicken getting use of outdoors however it doesn’t stipulate just how much space they might require or how lengthy they should be outdoors for…

But, taking commercial farms to 1 side- when it comes to backyard chicken keepers what counts as the opportunity?

We’d class free-range as chickens that every have a minimum of 25 sq . ft . of outdoors space. Ideally, this is with no run keeping them in, however, this isn’t practical constantly because of foxes along with other predators attempting to catch them.

That’s both short version and also the lengthy version to just how much room do chickens need.

Leave us a remark below letting us read your comments counts as a totally free range chicken…

Resourse: http://thehappychickencoop.com/how-much-room-do-chickens-need/

Fresh Eggs Daily – Space Requirements in the Coop and Run for Backyard Chickens

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