Size okay for 8 full-size chickens?

[emorems0]

I'm already suffering from chicken math and I'm just a newbie! We originally planned on having 6 hens but right now we have 9 chicks. We hatched out 5 of them so there are likely at least a few roos (one of the 5 is developing a more prominent comb than the others, but they are only 3 weeks old); and the other 4 we bought a week ago are guaranteed girls. If we really only have one roo in our flock that will leave us with 8 hens (plus I might try to convince DH to let us keep the roo too, lol), I want to make sure my coop plans are sufficient for this many birds... building is starting this week!

The plan is for the coop to have a floor area of 6ft x 4ft, plus a 2ft x 4ft loft area. So that makes 32sq-ft total... that should be enough for 8 full size birds, right? *Mostly Rhode Island Reds and Black Australorps. What if I convince DH to keep the roo for a total of 9 birds? All 9 of them will be out there for a while until we can determine which are really the roos anyway and I want to be sure they'll have enough space.

Oh, they'll also have an attached ~6ft x 13ft run to be out in during the day (roughly 9-10sq-ft per bird).

 

[Ridgerunner]

That 4 square feet in the coop with 10 square feet in the run rule of thumb is basically set up for someone keeping nothing but a small number of hens about the same age and level of maturity in an urban or suburban back yard. In those conditions it generally keeps about anyone anywhere out of serious trouble, though that does depend on your climate and your management techniques, which means it’s overkill for most people. If you start adding roosters, broody hens with chicks, decide to integrate new chickens (especially if they are young and immature) or live in a snowy climate where they can’t get out of the coop much in winter it can get really tight. With multiple roosters it will almost certainly be too tight.

I find that the tighter I pack them (and sometimes I do pack then tighter than I’d like), the more behavioral problems I have, the less flexibility I have to deal with a problem of any kind, and the harder I have to work.

A key point, it does not matter if the space is in the coop by itself, coop plus run, or some other space. What matters is how much total room is available when they need it. If you build your run to keep snow out you are providing a lot more space for them in winter.

Have you tried laying out the inside of your coop with roosts, nests, food, and water? With 8 or 9 hens you can get by with probably two nests though I suggest you make them a little larger than the minimum 12” x 12”. Even in the nests, I find a little extra space helps when you are at the maximum number. A normal suggested ratio is one nest for every 4 to 5 hens so you are likely close to the maximum. With nine chickens you should be OK with 8’ of roost length. Keep them 12” off the wall and separated by 12”. That does not leave you much room to put food and water where they won’t poop in it from the roosts and you may still need to fit nests in.

I’ll mention that a lot of building materials come in 4’ and 8’ dimensions. If you are careful with your design, you can often build a bigger coop or run for very little extra money and with less cutting and waste if you base your building on these dimensions. A 6’ x 4’ coop can be fairly efficient, mainly cutting 8’ long lumber, although I don’t know what is going on with your loft, but remember you need access to all of it. If it is an elevated coop it may not be too bad but it is really small for a walk-in.

 

[RJSorensen]

If you need to see for yourself how your coop might fair with your birds, lock them in for the day. It is best that you be there, to save them, should you have enough of the 'fit' and smell, etc. When you do then let them out, stick your head in there and get a good feel for the warm damp air and the amount of poo that a day indoors produces. If you have not done this prior, it will stun you with a good case of reality.

What one wants to do, and what one should do are often at points of opposition.

Best to you and your birds,

Rj

 

[6of6chicks]

Have you tried laying out the inside of your coop with roosts, nests, food, and water? With 8 or 9 hens you can get by with probably two nests though I suggest you make them a little larger than the minimum 12” x 12”. Even in the nests, I find a little extra space helps when you are at the maximum number. A normal suggested ratio is one nest for every 4 to 5 hens so you are likely close to the maximum. With nine chickens you should be OK with 8’ of roost length. Keep them 12” off the wall and separated by 12”. That does not leave you much room to put food and water where they won’t poop in it from the roosts and you may still need to fit nests in.

This is key to figure out BEFORE you start building. Because odds are you're going to read, read, read....then build the thing...then stand back proudly...and then immediately start renovations. I certainly did. Some things just didn't work the way I thought they would and I found better ways, which meant moving perches, changing out feeders, etc. If you build tight to begin with ( # of chickens x 3-4 sq. ft.) and fill it to the max with birds, you might just be creating a headache for yourself later on (like I did).

Before you build, picture all of the feeders, waterers, roosts, etc., and SUBTRACT that space from your overall footage. Do you have to do that? No, but it will ensure you really do have ample room for each bird. Ladders take up space. Depending on your food/water dishes those can take up a lot of space if you put them in the coop. You get the idea. When it's all said and done it's much tighter in there than you think.

Build bigger than you think you need. Much bigger. When you makes changes down the road you may end up losing some of that square footage for one thing or another. You'll be glad for a little wiggle room in your design, and your chickens will appreciate the breathing room!

Good luck!!

 

[Judy]

That could be a little skimpy, especially if they will stay indoors all day in the winter because of snow on the ground. 6x13=78 which is a little les than 10 sf for 8 birds. The bottom line, though, is that the more space you can give them, the better, particularly outdoors if they go out every day. Here is an excellent article about space:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-much-room-do-chickens-need

 

[donrae]

I completely second what Judy said. If you haven't built yet, go bigger, at least on the run. Your girls will thank you later.

 

[iwiw60]

Coop size you are planning on is WAY too small I think. I see that you are in PA ... packing that many birds in such a small coop during the winter months with freezing weather will have the possibility of disaster from ventilation, humidity from the body heat they'll produce, etc. You need to re-think that coop for sure.

 

[iwiw60]

If you need to see for yourself how your coop might fair with your birds, lock them in for the day. It is best that you be there, to save them, should you have enough of the 'fit' and smell, etc. When you do then let them out, stick your head in there and get a good feel for the warm damp air and the amount of poo that a day indoors produces. If you have not done this prior, it will stun you with a good case of reality.

What one wants to do, and what one should do are often at points of opposition.

Best to you and your birds,

Rj

Exactly, RJ...that's waaay too many birds for such a small coop size...yikes!

 

[Wol1]

If you can possibly build bigger, I think you will be glad you did. As other posters have mentioned, waterers, feeders, ladders, nest boxes, etc. take up a lot of room. Mine refuse to go out if it snows and they can't see the ground. I'm not sure where the 4 square feet rule comes from, but mine have a little over 10 feet square each plus more than adequate roost space, and it got a bit dicey in the winter. They really got on each other's nerves. It was a challenge to keep them busy enough to leave each other alone. When there is no snow on the ground, they have an outdoor run about 200' in circumference with poultry net fencing that I move around. Then, they only go into the coop to eat or use the nest box.

A small space CAN be done... we got 12 new chicks this year (including two unwelcome surprise roos) and 10 of them are still in their 4 x 4 nursery at 16 weeks while we try to solve a feather picking issue among the big girls.... (we just spent an entire day emptying, scrubbing, disinfecting, spraying with permethrin the big girls coop in case it's invisible mites of some kind). The two roos are in a separate enclosure. With the winter crowding in mind, we are expanding the big coop for the addition of the babies. It is very crowded in the nursery at night. Lots of fighting until everyone gets settled on the roosts. Always have to clean poop out of the feed in the morning because the only place to hang it is partially under their behinds on one of the roosts. They have a little run we cobbled together on the outside which is about 4' x 6' with two roosts which they use in the mornings/evenings/rainy days and that seems to ease the crowding enough to avoid the fighting. On dry days they go outside in a small pen about 12' in diameter. They have reduced it to dust, but they really look forward to their outdoor time when they can stretch their wings.

Even though this is our second batch of chicks, I'm still amazed at how quickly the space "shrinks" as they grow. What seems huge when they are chicks quickly becomes crowded. So, again, I agree that you should make the coop larger if you possibly can. Every extra square foot will help.

Regarding the roos... ours were so vicious in their mating (at 14 weeks!) that they are incarcerated in a small makeshift box until we can finish a separate mini coop/run for them.... maybe the "nursery" will become their home.

 

[emorems0]

Thanks for the quick feedback! I was feeling like it would be cramped with the extra chickens...

I should clarify a few things that were brought up. The nest boxes are in addition to the 6ft x 4ft, so nesting space does not need to be subtracted (overall coop size is 80"x 48", subtracting the nesting box area makes for 66"x 48", so actually 5.5ft x 4ft, plus the loft). The coop itself will be 4ft tall, the loft area is above the nesting boxes and fully accessible from the access doors. I could make the loft bigger, but I worry about it cutting into roosting space, right now I have two 4ft roosts planned about 18" away from the loft and 12" apart (I'm not sure how I'm going to position them height-wise since I have 4ft to work with - the loft is ~30" above the floor, the upper nest boxes are ~18" off the floor). Feeders and waterers will be outside in the run for now, by winter I plan on adding a PVC feeder and waterer inside in addition to the outside feeder & waterer since they have a smaller footprint.

The coop will be raised ~2ft off the ground and the run will extend under it for some snow-free space. At this point, we don't have a flat enough area of the yard to build a permanent, covered run, so we are just stringing up a cheaper fence on fence posts with some bird netting over top to keep the chickens in and the flying predators out (and a tarp for shade this summer). They will not be able to free-range because of neighbor dogs. I could double the size of the run by adding another section of 25ft fencing but it won't help much with winter snow unless I can figure out how to route it to under our nearby 5ft x 10ft back porch (I have pumpkins and corn growing in front of the porch now, so that couldn't happen until after harvest time).

Overall, the coop size was determined by our construction materials.... the floor and two long walls will be made with pallets so the only way to really make it bigger is to add another 3 pallets, but then I'm looking at an overall length of 10ft and it will be much harder to maintain since it isn't a walk-in. We chose pallets both for cost and to provide good summer ventilation. Note: We'll be putting hardware cloth over the pallets for predator control. We will likely be relocated for my hub's job within the next year and at that point we plan to build a nice, permanent run with a covered roof. Our yard here is just too hilly to make that happen though.

We can certainly give away a chicken or two if needed and we had actually planned to give away any roosters, although at this point there is only one of the hatched chicks that looks like it might be developing differently, and I'm getting fairly attached to him/her, lol. Regardless of how many roosters we end up with (and give away), it will take a while before we can really determine the gender, right? So they'll all need to stay in the coop for a while at least.