Chickens may safely enjoy the sunshine, fresh air, and exercise they require in a fenced-off yard.
Each chicken should get at least 8 to 10 square feet. But if you only give them the minimum amount of room, you’ll quickly see how rapidly hens can trample the greenery by picking it up, pecking at it, and coating it in poop.
Small Yards
If you only have a few pet chickens and there isn’t much yard space available, one solution to the issue is to level the yard area and cover it with several inches of clean sand.
Dust-free, uneven, gritty medium to coarse-grained sand because it’s easy to clean and dries quickly.
You can buy the sand from places like hardware stores or garden centers. It’s sometimes called concrete sand, coarse sand, river sand, mixing sand, etc. As long as it’s not like the fine-grain stuff you’d put in a kid’s sandbox.
Use a lawn rake to go over the sand each day to even out holes in the ground that chickens make while dust bathing, and get rid of droppings and other trash. A long-handled poop scooper (Amazon) is also useful when sifting the poop out of the sand.
Large Yards
You’ll have a greater chance of retaining some grass and plants in your yard if it’s larger. The stripping down of vegetation will begin near the chicken coop and spread outward because chickens are most active close to their shelter.
The ideal solution for this issue is to fence off a portion of the yard and let the chickens to roam only in one area for a few weeks or months before allowing them to roam into the next. You can also use a chicken pen (Amazon) and move it around the yard.
How quickly the vegetation is damaged depends on the number of chickens you have and how active they are. And how long it takes for it to regenerate depends on the type of vegetation and climate.
Where Should a Fenced Yard Be?
Position your fenced chicken yard on a slope or at the top of a hill if your soil doesn’t have sufficient gravel or sand in it. This will ensure proper drainage and will prevent puddles from forming when it rains.