How many square feet per chicken?

Quote:
I certainly would not say that in non-Maui climates chickens "need" to be spending time inside.

The thing is, many CHICKENS feel they need to LOL. Some are intrepid live-off-the-land laugh-in-the-face-of-winter type chickens, sure. However others are not, and give every appearance of not ever WANTING to be.

The difficulty is that you cannot predict what your *particular* chickens' attitudes will be towards foul weather (lol, had to correct that, I originally typed "fowl weather").

There seems to be a large enough number of people who, despite their best efforts, fail to convince their chickens that it really is fine to wander around outdoors all day when it's grey and 0 F and sideways-snowing, and who consequently end up with pretty serious pecking/cannibalism problems, that I still think the best advice is for people to plan on allowing as much room as possible. Because tight quarters in bad weather often DOES backfire badly.


Pat

I have four chickens, three pullets and one cockerel. The coop is 2 1/2 x 4 with two nest boxes and a roost approximately 3ft. The run is 5 1/2 x 9. They free range most of the day. I am wondering if I should keep my cockerel. I am attached to him but the original goal of this project was eggs, pets and eggs. I wondered if I would be able to add 1 or 2 hens and keep my cockerel.

This is my first year with chickens. I am in SW Washington and am not sure how much ti e they will spend in the coop this winter. I would say that if they were only sleeping in the coop maybe additional birds would keep them warm?

I just want them healthy and happy!

I have quite a few acres that are well vegetated (many trees, brush and grass), that I plan on letting them free range on during the day. How much area do smaller breeds need if they are mainly just cooped up while small chicks and later as adults roosting at night? I plan on getting another 30-50 birds.

I have quite a few chickens in a large coop. I have many roosts at different heights and on different walls. The chickens can be like people and want to snuggle together. I have two roosts at the same height about 10 inches apart on one particular wall. Putting them on that wall was an after thought as I had an extra roost pole and thought I'd put it 'somewhere'. Comes to find out, the chickens will roost facing each other on both of those roosts and snuggle their heads across the roost area. The chickens are also nestled side by side to other chickens on that same roost. Now, there are plenty of other roosts that are not being occupied but the chickens clearly want to cozy in next to each other. So, like the one person said, sometimes it doesn't matter on the size of the coop or the amount of roosts. Chickens are very social creatures and some are much calmer, social breeds than others.

As far as my chickens, they're ISA Browns and are great, social chickens. Some let me pet them while most of them I get even a few inches away before they think about moving. Sometimes I spend an hour in the coop just watching as I'm fascinated with how social they are and pick up on what I think their 'feelings' may be. They get intrigued. They're curious. Mine are gentle and never peck or bite. They all get along with each other very, very well. I have a few grey leghorns in another coop with some RRI and the leghorns are a skittish, easily spooked bird whereas my ISAs are not. I'd definitely have a lot more square feet if I had all leghorns because of that - but, I'd probably never get leghorns again because they are so skittish. Two totally different kinds of chickens requiring different needs for each.

I love being a farmer. Don't you?

My coop is 19 x 12 (not including the run, just their coop). . . the run will be hopefully about 20 x 40. I have three
hens right now and 27 chicks coming Tuesday, That should be big enough for them, yes? Eventually I want them
to have a chicken moat around the garden area too. I have little cover and always see hawks so I do not know if
I will ever let them free range, and their run has to be netted. . .but I do want them to be comfortable. By the 4sf
rule of thumb, that is 57 birds and I'll never get near that number. I have no intention of putting more than the 30 I'll
have in there.

You found a really old thread here, which is fine. That’s why they are still available.

I’m not a believer in magic numbers. On the face of it you should have plenty of room, but that depends some on your climate and how you manage them. It’s mainly a repeat of my earlier post in this thread, but you might follow the link in my signature to get some things to consider about how much space you need.

It really does sound like you have plenty of room.