Bantams only need 4 sq. ft. per bird?

[shelleyd2008]

I googled the space requirements for bantams, and most everything I found said 4 sq. ft. of outside (run) space per bird, and 1 sq. ft. of inside (coop) space? Is this right? It seems awfully small!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Sorry, this started as something else

 

[elmo]

That seems way too small to me, too. I have five bantams in a 64 square foot coop/run, and I move them to a 50 square foot tractor during the day.

They still seem a little cramped so I've been giving them free range time, also.

 

[Barred Rocker]

4 square feet is only a 1 foot box,they must have meant a 4' X 4' pen. I don't bother with space requirements I give my chickens tons of space so they can run around and even fly a little but then I have plenty of land to to that and I realize some folks don't.

 

[patandchickens]

Remember that any of these prescriptions for space allotments are, at best, MINIMUMS.

You will always be better off with more than the minimum.

I would suggest ignoring numerical prescriptions and doing what seems right to you

Good luck, have fun,

Pat, with ~15 sq ft per LF hen indoors plus run, and having seen the difference in their behavior that way, wouldn't go less

 

[shelleyd2008]

The problem is that I have quite a few different breeds that I need to seperate. I'm wanting to make tractors for them, but I don't know how big to make the tractors, and can't get a straight answer. So I googled the space requirements, since I wasn't getting any answers here, and I couldn't find any info on bantams here either.

All of my breeds are in trios, but I'm just not sure how big of a tractor to make for each of them. I have my bantam cochins in a tractor now that is 3' x 8', and it doesn't have a coop. The nest box takes up quite a bit of floor space, but if it weren't for that, the size of the tractor looks like it would be okay for the 3 birds, and probably a fourth as well.

I'm just trying to get things figured out before I start building them. I don't want coops to be too big, and the birds not able to stay warm, and I don't want the runs to be too small, or so big that I can't move them.

I'm really pulling at straws here. The sites I read did say 4 sq. ft., but it could have been 4 ft. sq. which would be a huge difference. But that still leaves the 1 sq. ft. for the coop, there's no way that was a misprint.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I know the article in Backyard Poultry about Plymouth Rock Bantams said a 4 by 4 coop & a 4 by 4 run for a quad of bantams. It seems small, but that was a breed article. I will keep 6-8 in my 4 by 6 tractor coop, but have 48 sq. feet of outdoor space.

 

[Scott]

According to most sources, 2ft x 2ft is the minimum inside space for bantams. Therefore, a 64sq ft chicken coop could house 32 bantams. This is, of course, a bare minimum. My 14 bantams live in a 64 sq foot (8ft x8ft) chicken house. However they also have 112sq ft of outside pen space. So when they give you a bare minimum of inside space of 2ft x 2ft, it is assumed the birds will have a minimum outside area of at least 4ft x 4ft per bird. In my opinion, it would be miserable for a bird to live its entire life (or any length of time) confined to a 2ftx2ft space.

 

[Scott]

Quote:
When they say 4 sq feet, they mean 2ft x 2ft of floor/living space. Not a box.

 

[Scott]

Quote:
I agree, 1sq ft seems awfully small for living space for a bantam. Thats a 1ft x 1ft square of living space. Each of my nestboxes is that size. In my opinion, that is not large enough living space for a bantam. 2ft x 2ft is the bare minimum that I most often see recommended. And even that is too small in my opinion. According to 1ft x 1ft recommendation, I could house 64 bantams in my 64sq ft chicken house. That is crazy! They would be cramped, fight, and be generally miserable, not to mention the place would stay filthy with that many birds. That recommendation may be for factory production birds that you see crammed into large-scale chicken egg/meat producers. For the backyard flock, 1ft by 1ft is not sufficient.