Hello,
I am incredibly late (like 8ish years) to finding your article Raising Chickens 2.0. I found it during some Pinterest searching: I am preparing to start keeping chickens for the first time. I had some questions and wondered if people in this forum could help.
I live on 15 acres, but 3 are cleared while the rest is heavily wooded. I'm not into the idea of clearing any more. I want chickens but my little homestead is the site of almost every family gathering in my extended family, including weddings, birthday parties, etc., because our little yard is pretty and our native stone home sets a pretty backdrop.
So- for the reason of keeping our yard "pretty" and not having poop all over every surface, I was keen on the idea of a cute permanent coop and a big attached run. Was planning on putting it on a permanent foundation to help predator-proof it, and let the girls out for a few hours a day to "free-range". Until I came across your article, which makes a lot of sense.
I don't love the paddock system idea for a couple reasons: the need for portability already feels like it will require not the prettiest of solutions, and I am not keen on the idea of constantly moving the things.
What if I were to fence a large section of my yard off (maybe a half acre to an acre) and still have a permanent coop where they slept. Would this solve the free ranging issue of stuff all over the yard, without doing too much damage to my scenery? They could free range in this area only during the day and be put up in the coop at night? How long would it take 5-10 chickens to destroy that much vegetation?
