Topic: What is the smallest area to keep chickens in?

[boldielocks]

I have a small garden which I want to turn over to keeping a few chickens and growing some greenhouse veg.

What is the small area to keep chickens in, I want enough chickens to give me about 15 eggs a week. The area I have in mind is about 8 by 8 foot (48 square feet). I'm thinking this is too small.

[skintnbitter]

Can you move the pen around the garden, would be my first question, as the chucks will soon eat all the grass , weeds etc within that area and all you will have left is soil.

Also when i kept my chucks they would average around 4/5 eggs per week. So you would be looking at 3/4 chucks for 15 eggs per week.

I personally would not keep 3/4 chucks within such a small area, but that is just my opinion as i gave mine the run of our garden which is approx 80 feet x 60 feet and locked them up at night in a shed. I kept 4 chucks at the most at anyone time.





 

[boldielocks]

That answers my question. I can't move a pen around garden. And I cant give the chickens the run of the garden because of the peskie cats that my neighbour keeps getting.

[growmore]

It's quite feasible to keep 3 or 4 birds in the space you say ..Get an 8x4 shed and put on the side of it an 8x4 outside run. Put plenty of shavings on the floor of the shed, Clean it out  regularly. Hang a cabbage or a bunch of tied brassica leaves on a string  suspended from the roof inside the shed.On the 4ft wide back full width of the shed , build in 2 next boxes on top of these put a wider piece of board than the nest boxes, on the top of this at each end fix a piece of wood say 3x4 or 4x4 on the edges across it back to front, then fix a piece of handrail etc on top of this so its running across the full length of your board this becomes their perch. The wide top under this becomes their dropping board which can easily be cleaned off daily..
Dig your outside run over frequently,scatter them their corn in the run too and pop em a grass sod or two in there when you can ... I think 3 or 4 hens would be quite happy in such a set up..
 

[boldielocks]

Thanks growmore. I've got a 8x6 shed, i could convert this. Thanks for the info.

[RW]

You could keep bantams instead of large fowl. There is a big difference in the amount of droppings from bantams. If the area if covered and stays dry then a small space is very easy to manage.

[Peasticks]

I have an Eglu (on left of pic) The Eglu house itself can fit four chickens and comes with a 2m run which comfortably fits two chickens (I have four so have extended my run) if you have a small garden its ideal and its dead easy to clean - just hose it down! I put wood planks around mine and filled the run with woodchip and it stays in one place so I don't have to move it and the chickens don't stand in mud (not that they mind!) The Eglu is made by Omlet.

[terrier]

Peasticks, is that a Welshie in the foreground of your pic???

boldielocks, we keep chooks that are free to roam during the day, we also keep cats. The cats are very wary of the chooks and keep well out of their way, in fact, many's the time I've put food out for the cats and the chooks have muscled in and pinched it.

[Peasticks]

Peasticks, is that a Welshie in the foreground of your pic???

It is  ;D he is a year old and a great little fellow.

[terrier]

Ha!  Recognise a Welshie miles away :)  You might be interested in our website for Welshies.   www.weltaf.co.uk