Is anyone making do with <10 sq ft per hen in the run?

[EmmaDonovan]

I'm asking about a confined flock, not free range, with fewer than 10 sq ft per chicken.

I know bigger is better.

1. How many sq ft per hen do you have in your run?

2. Are your hens unhappy?

3. Are you constantly tending wounds because they attack each other?

4. Do you get only a few eggs from them?

 

[Shadrach]

This is for a mainlty confined group. They get out of the coop and run area most days fo two or three hours.

1) Run is approx 320 square feet. Currently four chickens so about 80 square feet per bird.
2) Difficult to say but when I go to feed them they want out.
3) No, although I have recently had some problems with a young cockerel.
4) I get the average amount for their breed.

I know bigger is better.

If one thinks about an acre per tribe/group that's about how much bigger is better. Their ancestors claimed around this much room as their territory and when I've kept ranging birds over many acres, an acred per group is approxiamtely what they made their territory, although each group would travel in and out of anothers territory throughout the day.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

That's a lot more than 10 sq ft per bird.