how much space per chicken - Page 2

Hi David!

I appreciate your input very much!  Yeah, I am glad I asked, because that coop did look MIGHTY small for ten birds.

What I think I am going to do is get that coop-and-run combo, and then also get a large chainlink dog kennel with a cover, and sort of daisy-chain it onto the run to give the girls more room.

The state fair is coming up.  If I can get all my (expletive deleted) together in time, I may purchase a couple of birds then.

I've read a little on this subject and believe:
"The more space the better".

However, most of us here don't own farms so we are limited
by available space.  The less space, the more maintenance.

My current setup:
Coop area inside my shed/barn in 12'x3'.
My run is 6x18.
I currently have 12 birds who spend 12 to 16 hours a day in the coop(3ft/bird),
4 to 8 hours in their run(9ft/bird) and I do my best to let them free range
on my property bordering some woods for a few hours every afternoon.  They
stay in an area around 1/4 acre.  It's a diverse piece of land with good shade,
dust bath area, bug pickin zone, and of course my front lawn with all those
juicy pieces of fresh grass.

We change the pine in the coop every 4 or 5 days.  We have more of a problem
with the ammonia smell after 5 days than with a poop smell.

Everyone who sees my setup, especially those with poulty experience, say I have
happy and spoiled birds.

Don

I've seen this coup at a local feed store.  First impressions were "Wow, that is so cute".

I'd say 4 hens max for it with a run they have access to all the time.  They
would only sleep, roost, in it.

Concerns:  What about the cold months?  This thing would be drafty on not
hold heat well.  If there is snow on the ground the chickens will spend a lot of
time "cooped up"

Conclusion:  Good for a few Bantums but a cheap shed with some minor modifications
would work much better.  More room, easier access and cleaning, etc...

Good luck

Well said David.

I agree the space requirements are generalizations. For inside space I have far less space than reccomended and out door A LOT more. Chickens typically come and go as they please.

Earlier this year a bunch of new chickens(40)  I was keeping seperate from the rest, penned with  a 30x 100 outdoor area. After 3 weeks it looked like a desert. Good thing is, by that time I started letting them range over the property here. It did take most of the summer for that area to fully recover.

One other thing to look at is your general geography,climate, what they are ranging on, quality of the soil. It all plays a role in how fast an area will recover from chicken excavating and how many square feet you need per chicken.

Modified garden sheds almost always work well for small flocks and much cheaper than most other options.

Ok, I'm not representing myself as an expert or anything, and if you see where I've gone wrong let me know but...

With my Coop house the chickens have just over 2 Ft. per bird.
I can't see why they would need anymore then this, at least in my area of the world.

My chickens go in their house twice per day, once to lay an egg and the other to go to sleep.
The only exception to this is when I stick my camera in their coop at night and flash them, then they arn't sleeping
I couldnt get everthing into one shot from their clean out door but, the four older girls are sleeping in the corner against the far wall and the two younger ones are trying to sleep to the left.
With the way they pack themselves into one spot, there is enough room for another 7 chickens in there.
I dont think they would be happy with another seven chickens but there is alot of roost space thats not taken up.

I orignally planned the house for 3-4 chickens, but it seemed to me there was plenty of room for more so we added the other two.

Their outdoor run has a minimum of 10 sq ft. per bird, its really larger but, it also changes around a bit.

Ok that went longer then I wanted.

So, the question or answer is, what am I missing?
If nothing, I guess my point is that, there are no hard and fast rules.

forgive poor grammar, typing one handed with sleeping 3-legged foster kitten on chest.

i saw some rubbermaid (plastic) sheds on the home depot site. would plastic work as a coop, or could predators gnaw their way in?

You are right Barg. There are no exact proven size requirements. It does change by circumstance.

Now if your chickens spent most of their time locked in the coop I would say it is too small.

Not happy with more? You may be surprised at that. Have you ever seen chickens roosting in a tree and how many they can pack on a small branch. I also remember many of my grandmothers chickens roosting in a small shed rather than their coop. They really packed themselves in. Yet they had 2 barns 3 coops and other outbuildings to choose from if they actually wanted more space. I think ultimately the important factor is total space. Anyone obsessing over indoor space when their chickens spend almost all their time outdoors is really wasting their time and energy. If the chickens are healthy and happy then obviously all is well.

Lisa, I know some here in BC who have used them with success. They will hold the heat and cold so depending on your location and sheltering of the coop that could be an issue. When it comes to predators. I think that is best answered by those here who have used these sheds personally and those who live in your area.

wow you'd all hate us here in the uk!! the ark/run that i've got my girls in at the mo IS small (IMHO) but the guy who makes them all says that it'll house 6 hens   the run is 6' long and not sure about the ark size but its not big enough!

DH and i have built a 13x8' run with a 3x3 (2 x nest boxes on side so really 3x4) hut on the outside which i think is fine for the 4 girls we have and hopefully a couple more in the spring, my girls only use the hut to lay (hopefully) and to go to sleep

do you all have to have larger coops so that you can lock your chickens in it in the winter and height of summer etc??


H x

A point to be made, too, is that it's not just a matter of having a rather ravaged landscape, crowded girls and more frequent cleaning chores (although those are all good points!). The less room you have for your chickens, the more you're likely to have problems with parasites and illness passed quickly amongst the flock... with picking... with aggressiveness and so forth.

If your birds are crowded together closely, it's easier for lice, mites and worms to make their rounds. It's easier for a birdie bronchitis sneeze to infect everyone. And it's harder for the birds lowest on the pecking order to find a place to get away from the bossy Alphas.

That's not to say that you have to follow FOUR SQUARE FEET absolutely, because these are rules of thumb only--dependent on your particular conditions--and obviously you can have mites, lice, picking and everything else whether you have one square foot, four square feet or 10 square feet per bird. However, with more space, when you do have problems, it may be easier to get those problems under control

One hopes!

I followed the 4 Square Foot Rule in the past, mostly because that was the average of all the modern wisdom. I built an ark according to that and I even wrote an article on the mathematics of the whole concept.

Then I began to read the archane texts, by guys like Kains and Hastings and Robinson. I learned that this whole 4 sq ft thing was an offshoot of modernistic commercial practice, which has filtered down into poultrydom at large. Since then I've dumped it. It is true that there are no absolutes here but you can come close - and should try.
So here it comes,  the Revised Space Allowance guideline, or "RSA" for short:

"It is far better to have fewer chickens than it is to cram too many of them in to a small space without respite."

Now this will go against the grain for those whose nature it is to overdo things. If a BOGO sign (Buy One Get One...) in front of a store causes you to whip out your wallet and careen into the parking lot, be careful here! If your OTHER favorite website is FreeCycle, becuase you can get lots of "cool stuff" there, BEWARE! - - -
You will surely suffer from "chicken want-itis," which is simply wanting as many of the cute little darlings as you can get your clutching hands on. Unless you have planned for this you will do no one any good. This is where the old adage, "Know Thyself," will come in handy.

Barq has a small roost area, yes, but a chicken only needs about 18 square inches for that activity. I've had hens that fit 4 of themselves in a standard nest box and be happy that way. But day to day living is another matter. Think about the size of your bed, when compared to your house, for example.

Also note the admission the the birds go in the house only to lay and roost. The rest of the time they are out. Wise, wise, wise. Chickens need fresh air and lots of it. Their metabolic rate is high and they use a lot of oxygen.

Someone mentioned ammonia. When you confine them tightly, their droppings exude huge amounts of ammonia gas as they breakdown. This gets in the lungs and can cause all sorts of respiratory problems if not dealt with - again, waste management. The commercial poultry business has devised all sorts of methods to combat this. Near as I can tell, it is perhaps their primary concern, from which most other problems arise.

When I said chickens do heathenlike things to each other when crowded, I meant everything from disease to cannibalism stems from that one factor. I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but you can't "fudge" this basic element of poultry care. Pollyanna idealism wont help you when you fail in this matter.