How many chickens can my coop hold

Ok so I am currently building my chickens a new coop! I have 8, 8 week old chickens and 6, 3 week old chickens. I'm building a modified purina coop. My size is 8ft X 8ft and probably 4 feet from floor of coop to roof. This may not seem big but I was looking at it today and it seems HUGE!!! I was just wondering exactly how many birds I can actually put in there? I really want to order a few more if I have space for them.

bamafan87 said:

Ok so I am currently building my chickens a new coop! I have 8, 8 week old chickens and 6, 3 week old chickens. I'm building a modified purina coop. My size is 8ft X 8ft and probably 4 feet from floor of coop to roof. This may not seem big but I was looking at it today and it seems HUGE!!! I was just wondering exactly how many birds I can actually put in there? I really want to order a few more if I have space for them.

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It may seem huge now, but it wont when they all grow up and you get the roost bar, poop board, food, water, nest boxes. etc, etc in there. It is somewhat a matter of pers. opinion on how many birds in what amount of space. My opinion for your space is 12-13. Here is a link to a short explanation I wrote on BYC a while back.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chickens-and-space-the-in-your-face-answers

The general rule of thumb is 4 square feet of floor space for each chicken. So - an 8x8 coop (if it's ALL usable) would offer 64 square feet. Divide that by 4 and you could have 16 chickens in your coop.

The outside rule of thumb is 10 square feet per chicken if they are in an enclosed run.

i've got 2 coops.. an 8x8 and a 5x5..... my birds have access to either coop, they can come n go as they please... i built the bigger coop so i could grow my flock..... well 16 birds decide life in a 5x5 coop is what makes them happy.... both coops have the same light, roost, etc.... so if they "need" 4 sq. ft. per bird, nobody told my flock...... i will add, my coops do not have doors, so they're never locked in, i have a secure run..... they are happy n healthy with 1.5 sq. ft per bird...... if they were to crowded theres 64 sq. ft. for them but they don't bother...

The coop that I currently have is only 2x6 and I have 8 birds in there and they seem to love it as well! I have 3 roosts the width of the coop and they love it! I just got to looking at the coop im currently building and I was like "man that looks huge" of course it will be a few more weeks before I have 16 birds in there but for now, just by looking at it , it seems as if I could have like 25!!!!

I've seen alot of discussion regarding how many birds to a coop.... 2-3 sq feet per bird; 4+ feet per bird? I think it depends alot on the design and if they have access to the outside. My coop is designed with multiple levels with two staggered perches (1.5 feet apart and at different heights 1 at 5 feet and 1 at 6.5 feet) over some "poop" trays that are about 4 feet off the floor. The birds arrange themselves so that at least 10 birds can fit on each perch (the coop is 6 feet wide). The nests (7 of them) are built on the outside so they don't take up any floor space. Everything is built to allow for maximum floor space (6' x 8') yet the birds spend almost all their time outside or on the roosts. In my opionion the "layered" effect adds a substantial amount of living space... 48 square feet of floor space + 7 nesting boxes + two levels of perches separated from the floor by the poop trays. My coop seems to easily support 18-20 birds. The poop trays keep the wood chips from getting soiled so I don't even need to change the litter very often but even more importantly it keeps the perches separated from the floor both visually and physically. I recently integrated 11 young birds(2.5-3.5 months old) directly into the flock of my 11 original adult birds without any trauma at all.... just put them in and nothing happened. The adult birds stay on the perches when in the coop and the young birds stay on the floor. The adult birds didn't even seem to notice that there were new birds. The younger birds are now 15 and 19 weeks respectively and some of them get up on the perches now at night with the rest of the clan. I even put 2 new 10-12 week old cockerals in with the group and my two existing roosters never even paid attention to them.... anyway back to my point; coop design goes a long way to determining how many happy birds you can have. If you have a tall coop (mine is 8 feet at the peak) you might want to try using vertical "layering" to increase holding capacity

Never thought of adding a second floor. Great idea! Might save me building another coop. When I added new birds I just went out after dark and put them on the perches with the older birds. About 5 days later, they were all up there on thier own when I got there.

Awesome

My husband and I are getting ready to build a new coop with what lumber we have to work with we can only get an 8 ft x 7ft house approx 6 ft tall I have 12 full grown chickens (brahmas, rock, etc and 7 small bantams will this be sufficient for them, they only sleep in it at night they are free range during day!

janet9462 said:

My husband and I are getting ready to build a new coop with what lumber we have to work with we can only get an 8 ft x 7ft house approx 6 ft tall I have 12 full grown chickens (brahmas, rock, etc and 7 small bantams will this be sufficient for them, they only sleep in it at night they are free range during day!

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It will be enough, especially with the smaller bantams. You have to remember that they will spend much more time in it in bad weather. i.e. winter.