[upert]

how much room do you give your chickens to run about in and how often do you move them to let the ground recover?

[Bodger]

It depends very much on the weather Upert.

[compostqueen]

Mine are free ranging over the whole garden at the moment as my husband took up the netting so he could mow the lawn, and didn't put it back.  Normally I move the netting about the lawn and keep rotating the hens til they're dizzy  

[desandchez]

it also depends on the number of girls and the size of the pen

[Spadefighter]

I guess a metre square per hen if they are in most of the time?

[GrannieAnnie]

A square metre per hen of run space is the minimum required, but we try to give our girls as much space as possible.  not always easy when there are 300 running around!!!

[upert]

are there indicators that the ground is 'off'? i have 6 birds in 24 square metres and have done for approx 1 month. would the ground starte to pong for example?

[desandchez]

sounds like you have bit of a drainage problem if the ground is quite hard use a fork and jab it in like you would when airiating the lawn, i tend to turn over some of the ground the girls love it scratching around for ages