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beckyboots
Joined: 10 Nov 2009
Posts: 19
Location: Yatton
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 Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 9:10 am Post subject: How much coup run should my six hens need |
 
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MY garden is a mess and my hens keep escaping.........
But i hate locking them up
How much room do they need to forage each day
Winter is making the ground smell keeping them in a run......
Someone with same amount please let me know before i go mad.
I have clipped their wings and yet they still fly out
Someone out there help me
I cannot plant anything anad i wanna get my garlic in  |
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Chez
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 15016
Location: Quantock Hills, Somerset
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 9:35 am Post subject: |
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Depends how much space you have. One square meter per bird is the absolute minimum I would consider and that would be with straw or shavings or something and mucking them out regularly. Double that space would be nice.
If you could manage two runs, you could swap them over between them every few weeks and give the grass a chance to grow back. |
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alison
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 7723
Location: North Devon
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 9:55 am Post subject: |
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How many hens do you have, and how much space do they have at the moment? |
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GSHP
Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 645
Location: Devon
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 10:48 am Post subject: |
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I have 9 hens in a fenced area- 42ft x 30 ft. This is showing no signs of wear and the grass is still growing and other than the little black hen they make no attempt to escape.
Not much help I know but if you can work backwards from these figures and reduce the size for less hens maybe.... 
The other pen has 10 in, is smaller and still has full grass covering but I don't know the measurements off hand.
as I said no help really ...sorry. |
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Woodburner
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 640
Location: Essex
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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It depends on how you want to keep them. If you want them to be on fresh grass all year round, GSHP's post looks to be a good guide.
We have a fox problem here, so I keep mine in a relatively small area, and keep moving them around, but I'm seriously considering a permanent covered run for the winter. It's been so wet, that just a couple of days after moving my bakers dozen, and even though there is still a good amount of vegetation, everything is covered with mud.  We're still only in November, and if the weather continues like this much longer we're going to run out of fresh ground; as it gets colder the ground/vegetation takes longer to recover. |
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beckyboots
Joined: 10 Nov 2009
Posts: 19
Location: Yatton
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| Posted: Wed Nov 18, 09 9:28 am Post subject: |
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Thanks to you all for your thoughts however, nothing conclusive there. They do have plenty of room for six hens. Even a long evergreen hedge to shelter from the rain. But there is no greenery left to nibble and nothing to scratch around for since all the grass has gone. We cannot rotate them either.
Maybe they need locking up in prison for the winter until the vegetation grows back. |
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Bebo
Joined: 21 May 2007
Posts: 6015
Location: East Sussex
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| Posted: Wed Nov 18, 09 9:33 am Post subject: |
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Either that or cover the ground in something else. If they have destroyed all of the grass you could look at putting down bark, straw etc etc to keep the mud down. |
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