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This is all brilliant advice, thank you all so much! Hubby is now on board with the idea after reading all your replies and us doing a bit of research. I'll keep you all updated but it will probably be a couple of months before I put things into motion. Just want to make sure the whole family is happy with the potential new family members. :)

We had hens in Gloucester and then moved to Cornwall. The lawn was large and I bought plastic fencing on a roll and lamphooks, and made a fenced area which looped from the hen house - then a 2' x 6' shed - for just four hens to start with. Whenever the grass looked tired, but not exhausted, I moved the fenced area to let the first part recover - imagine a pansy with the hen house as the centre and the fencing being petal shaped and moving round the middle. It worked really well until I got a area sorted just for the hens. We then let ducks and rabbits loose and never saw a slug or snail as the ducks ate everything nasty but not my flowers. I know that had the hens been completely free there wouldn't have been anything left in the flower beds as they scratch up everything.

You have apoint though,any ainimal/bird is going to eat what they can while expending the minimum of energy (ie. what's right under their nose.) So folding whatever animal you've got is REALLY good husbandry,and letting your stock roam all over the place is a misunderstanding of 'free range'as well as submitting them to all sorts of predator risk. A good size chicken tractor ,moved every day is excellent for your chickens AND the grass.

do give up the idea of ANY landscaping with free range hens...they love raking pine straw, rolling in newly tilled areas and fresh young tender plant shoots!, mine are real fond of petunias! 2 strands of electric wire does keep them out of the garden tho!

Run rotation! Make them a run - that rough patch you mentioned sounds ideal then divide it into two. Then alternate between runs - that way it gives the grass time to recover, and every now and again let them free range the rest of the garden when you are home to keep an eye out.

Mine have managed to keep grass (and a lot of weeds i.e. plantain in the bare patches) for 6 years now because I have rotated their runs.

Here's a pic of my latest two - you can see how scrappy it is and plantain only in the worst scratched areas which are always around the outside but if I hadn't divided this space in two it would be a lot barer than this.

I have 4 hybrids, in a 250 foot garden. They wreck it. Really. Eat everything. So, from end of March until end of August, they live in a run and get the weeds. Otherwise, they range and eat the pests and prepare the ground for next year. I do mean they eat everything: they'll peck all new growth and a plant has to be BIG before they'll leave it alone.