your chickens to have room to move and peck but when you are deciding on how much room you will leave to them make sure that your chickens will have no room to flee from their flock. although i consider chickens one of the smartest and friendly animals next to cats and dogs it has happened to many people for their chickens to escape from their flock if they find room to escape from your yard. you might think why would your chicken want to escape when you are feeding it and keeping it warm but chickens can be very competitive and the ones that end up at the end 