Chicken Coop & Run, how many chickens?

[TheFowlLine]

I live in the tropics, so keeping birds inside all winter from cold and snow I have no idea about. Winters just sever rain for days here .

My flock of 14 could live in there easily but there a well behaved raised flock.

I think you could get away with 10 well behaved hens, that all were raised together brooder sisters. The rooster trying to molest them is the problem. I see the daily poop build up +chores as crucial with not much leniency.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree it is frustrating, it seems that almost all manufacturers of coops exaggerate how many they can hold. They use commercial standards without concerning themselves with how those standards were developed. I'll try to explain.

Assume 1 chicken occupies 1 sq ft of space. I know they don't but I want to make the math easier, I don't like to use fractions. Assume you give them 2 sq ft per chicken in the coop, which isn't bad by commercial standards. Assuming you have 10 chickens that means the chickens occupy 10 sq ft and they each have 10 sq ft unoccupied they could use.

Now assume you have 5,000 chickens, which is normal for commercial operations. Giving them 2 sq ft each means they'd occupy 5,000 sq ft but each would have 5,000 sq ft available to use. Quite a difference from 10 sq ft. Using commercial standards for our small flocks doesn't always work well.

We currently have 2 Orpington chicks, 2 Easter Eggers, 1 Barred Rock, and 1 Black Australorp.

Your cold should not be much of a problem for those chickens. Chickens can handle cold weather pretty well. Just give them a chance to get out of a cold wind. And those should lay pretty well.

Another example of why I don't particularly like many prefabs. They give you more nests than you need so wasted space or extra construction costs. For 12 hens 3 nests are plenty, they don't need 6. For your 6 hens, 2 nests would do. I'm an engineer and I do not like inefficient design.

I know it is too late to do you any good but I wish people would come on this forum and let us evaluate a coop for their conditions before they buy it. That happens occasionally but not nearly enough.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Since you already have the coop I'd strongly suggest expanding the run plans instead. While the suggested minimum is around 10 sq ft per in run, if you have the budget I'd aim for 15-20 sq ft per bird at maximum flock size - that is, if you plan to have up to 10 birds at some point, build for 10+ (so 150-200 sq ft minimum). There's no such thing as "too much" space but too little space absolutely can cause issues, and it's difficult to address behavioral problems once they arise.

I currently have 8 hens in about 440 sq ft of run space, and they'll still chase each other around at times, but the extra space means birds can get away from one another when they need to, and gives me room to add plenty of clutter for enrichment.

 

[littlegardenhomestead]

Since you already have the coop I'd strongly suggest expanding the run plans instead. While the suggested minimum is around 10 sq ft per in run, if you have the budget I'd aim for 15-20 sq ft per bird at maximum flock size - that is, if you plan to have up to 10 birds at some point, build for 10+ (so 150-200 sq ft minimum). There's no such thing as "too much" space but too little space absolutely can cause issues, and it's difficult to address behavioral problems once they arise.

I currently have 8 hens in about 440 sq ft of run space, and they'll still chase each other around at times, but the extra space means birds can get away from one another when they need to, and gives me room to add plenty of clutter for enrichment.

Unfortunately where we live, everything requires zoning and permits and it’s a bit of a pain. We already submitted plans for a 6×10 roofed run.

I’m thinking that if we decide to add more space later, I could probably attach one of those steel or metal runs from Tractor Supply or Amazon that isn’t covered. That way I could extend their run space without having to go through the whole permit process again.