Last year I built a permanent 30ft by 12ft run divided in two for three hens. The plan was to alternate them in one half of the run for a period of time while the other half recovered.They skinned the run during the Winter so I left them out during the day into a piece of adjacent ground. They loved this as you can imagine but I need to bring them back into the run permanently. This is because I cannot stop them from finding holes in the hedgerow and finding their way to the back door of the house. This may be cute but the place is destroyed from their droppings, it is also a health hazard to my small children......we also have a lot of foxes in our area.
I want to keep the hens as I am quite fond of them and the eggs are delicious.
However, I want to do right by them. Is this a sufficiently spacious run for three hens? Do I need to provide a permanent supply of grit and sand for dust baths? Most importantly, there will be a lot of hen poo in an area of this size, will this be a hazard to them? and finally, would it be wise to feed them with a feeder or will they just gorge and get too fat.
I am a beginner with hens as you can see but the need to answer all these questions wasn't so urgent when they had loads of space to roam in.
Thanks for reading.