How many chickens in a 4 by 4 meters coop?

[Ray987]

Looking to build a coop, how many can sleep in a 4x4 meters (13x13ft)
I'll have a big run for them just wondering about the sleeping space

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

4 square feet per bird for the coop.

 

[NatJ]

Looking to build a coop, how many can sleep in a 4x4 meters (13x13ft)
I'll have a big run for them just wondering about the sleeping space

I'm used to working in feet, so 13 x 13 = 169 square feet.
At 4 square feet per chicken, that is enough for 42 chickens.

The guideline of 4 square feet per chicken is based on more than just sleeping, because it usually works when they are shut in for a while in the morning (until someone opens the door), and sometimes shut in at other times for bad weather, broken run, or extra predators in the area.

If your chickens are never shut in the coop so they can always go out as soon as they wake up in the morning, and weather conditions make it possible for them to do that every day, then the real limitation will be the amount of roost space. Depending on how you arrange the roosts, you might get about twice that many chickens in for sleeping purposes (more than that will usually mean that some are sleeping underneath others, which means they get pooped on all night, which isn't good for them.)

The more chickens you put in, the more important ventilation is. Doubling the chickens will also double how much poop and smell they produce each night, and how much moisture they breathe out. So even if the chickens can actually fit while they sleep, you might need to make special provisions for air movement. The usual guideline is one square foot of opening for ventilation, per chicken, in the coop. That would be about 1 square meter of ventilation for every 10 or 11 chickens. That adds up to a large amount of the "walls" being open for ventilation purposes!