[Chicken legs]

Hi everyone,

We have decided to join the chicken run and get some for our garden. We have a 130ft x 25ft garden and a large area at the top that we are clearing for their home. This could be as big as 25ft x 10ft. We have decided to pave an area of 10ft by 8ft where their house and a small run will be. There will be a path all the way around. We were then thinking of running a tunnel effect of wire frame to run to the other side of the path where there will be a lawned area of apprx 10ft x 10ft for them to roam around. Again this will be enclosed.
We have allotments beihind the top fence and know that there is a fox that visits regularly hence all  being enclosed.

We have bought a book about keeping chickens which we have read and today I have read a lot on this forum which I have to say initially put me off.

What I would like to know is

a) are we better putting the house on concrete slabs or rough ground?


b) How many chickens could we house with the size of the land we have as stated above

c) What is the best type of house to get.

Thank you in anticipation.

[themagicaltoad1]

Hi and welcome.
If I were starting from scratch I would get an ordinary wooden garden shed and put perches and some boxes for nesting in it. The advantage is it's cheaper than buying a purpose built coop, and easier to clean as you can stand up in it. Put it on slabs so the rats can't dig under it and if you can fix some wire mesh around the bottom it would help prevent them gnawing their way in.
The ideal is 2sq yards per chicken in a run.
You have space for quite a few chickens, if you're not getting them all at the same time you will need a separate run to keep any new ones in until they have got used to seeing each other or they will fight. I would get less than you want to begin with, then later when you've really caught the bug like the rest of us on here you could hatch some chicks
Don't be put off by reading posts on here, remember this forum is mainly used for sorting out problems, it's a great source of help.

[poultrygeist]

The house really depends on your budget and how many you may want in the future. If you want to stick to 3 or 4 and have a large budget, you could get an eglu or do as magicaltoad said and convert a small shed.
I would start with 3 in that size run to get used to them and see how much damage they do. If they have access to the whole area all the time, you could add another couple later if you wanted.
Make sure you use 19g wire mesh rather than hex chicken wire and a roof on the run is always a good thing to keep it dry and to make sure Mr Fox can't climb over the fence.

Rob

[matilda duck]

2sq yards per chicken??? I thought it was 1m sq per chicken?? But then conversions were never my strong point!

[poultrygeist]

1m sq minimum but 2 ideally. 2 sq yds is there or thereabouts 

If you can give them several sq metres, even better.

Rob