[upert]

do you move your chicken run to fresh ground?

mine's a pain to move, it is large and the coop is heavy and awkward. i dig it the earth over but it can pong a bit, it's then i move everything.

what about you?

[viettaclark]

I've only got 3 girls and a fairly small coop. The ol' man has made a fantastic run and it can all be moved by 1 person but easier with 2. They've got about 5 square metres on the grass "lawn". We move them (at the moment) every 4/5 days...before the grass is too decimated and give it a good rake and water. Takes 15/20 mins. to shift everything, clean up and put out stuff for morning and we do it when they're in bed so they get a nice surprise of fresh grass in the morning. (This is done smoothly using sort of sedan chair handles slotted through coop OH invention)) Very little smell and lawn is pretty big so damage isn't too dire (no more than son's football antics). I got completely freaked worrying about winter but I shall just keep them in one place, under trees (for bugs) with bark down (for bugs) and make sure they get plenty of green (kale, beet and cabbages are planted!!!) They'll have to be smelly...won't be so bad in winter.I can sow grass seed next spring when I start moving them again.
When you have chickens the lawn sort of comes second.... Yellow eggs come first......

[Roughlee Handled]

........ i dig it the earth over but it can pong a bit.............

If the earth "pongs" then there is only one problem too much chicken poo in that area.  I would suggest you either have to many chickens per meter squared or are not moving often enough.

[andreadon]

it does depend on the size of your run, upert.
one way of keeping the ground fresh (assuming your run is big enough) is to scoop up the poo every day.  and if you can get some kind of roof on your run, that'll stop the rain turning it into poo soup.

[poppies]

have you got enough room to make another run/coop so you can move the birds and leave the run to rest and regrow for a few weeks

[upert]

yes, enough room. i have an allotment, but much is under veg. i scattered straw becuase of the rain the other day, today i have threw a few buckets of soil in there... anything so i can delay the inevitable.

i have 12 birds, all ex batts in an area about 10 square metres and i let them roam around for an hour or two a day should they wish. i would make the run larger but the council are a bit fussy.

[Roughlee Handled]

There is you problem the absolute minimum i would ever suggest to someone is 1m squared per chicken and for the birds health two meters square. Sorry. 

[upert]

74 square feet is all we're allowed.

[karlooben]

whats that in metres ? my run is 10 m by 6 and thats on allotment ground , we have a new woman at the council now whos taken over the sites etc hope she dont find my run to big suppose i will find out next week when she does her inspections .

[Roughlee Handled]

74 square feet is all we're allowed.

74 square feet = 6.8 square meters so your birds have half a square meter.  I would suggest you reduce the amount of chickens you have. 

[tonethebone]

I must be thick, I can't make those figures add up!

You have an area which is 10 sq metres but only allowed 6.8.
Am I missing something??

Either way, as Roughlee points out, its too small for the number of chickens.

[joyfull]

Upert, I agree with roughlee as you are only allowed 74 square feet which equates to 6.87482 square meters  or 8.22222 square yards you definately have too many hens. The minimum per bird is 1 square yard  although most of us would suggest at least 2 square yards per bird.