Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: bedifferent on June 18, 2009, 15:39
-
I wonder if someone might be able to give my some advice??
I know that the general rule is that the more room you can provide chooks the better, but i need to re-think my chook run ideas.
The chooks are currently in a very large run which takes up quite alot of my garden. I have 2 boys that are growing fast and it is becomming apparent that i need to reduce the amount of the garden dedicated to chooks.
I have an ark to which i have attached a run down one side of my garden the run measures 20 ft in length and 4.5 ft in width - so it is long and thin. I have worked out he Sq meters to be about 8.2.
I am beginning to think that i will not be able to house all of the 13 hens that i currently have. It should be noted that the sleeping accommodation is a forsham ark which the company says will house 6-7 hens. However, mine will never be confined to the ark run and will always have access to the 20 ft run.
How many hens do i need to find homes for?
-
The absolute minimum per hen in a run is 1 square meter per hen, but most like to give them 2 sqare meters each, so on that assuming you go for the 2 square meters yoy would only be keeping 4 hens.
-
How many hens do i need to find homes for?
I'd rehome one of my kid's before giving up the garden for the hens :D
-
I did, both have now left home - yipee :lol: :lol:
-
4 hens!! That is just not enough.
Does it help if i say that 2 of them will be wyandotte bantams and 2 silkies?
-
It really depends on how happy you want your remaining chickens to be.
Are you keeping chickens for the pleasure of keeping chickens and eggs are a by product or are you keeping chickens for the eggs?
The less chickens you have the better the environment will be for them. If you keep more chickens there will be less grass (if any) and more mud. There health and mental well being is better in a bigger run with less birds. Over crowding causes habits like feather pecking.
Grass is what makes your eggs taste/look better than the super market.
If you have bare earth as a base now I suggest you put a roof on your run and cover the floor with bark. Or your chucks are going to be waist deep in mud by winter.