Chicken Roost Question and space

[ZANEYchickenguy]

Hello,
I am planning to get 9 hens and I read that chickens need 2-3 square feet of space in the coop. My measurements are 2.5 square feet per bird but I measured these dimensions including space under the hen's 4-foot tall roost. Does including this space count for my measurements? I am doing the deep method FYI.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello,
I am planning to get 9 hens and I read that chickens need 2-3 square feet of space in the coop. My measurements are 2.5 square feet per bird but I measured these dimensions including space under the hen's 4-foot tall roost. Does including this space count for my measurements? I am doing the deep method FYI.

The requirements are 3-4 sq ft of free floor space. More is better.

 

[ZANEYchickenguy]

Is 2.5 square feet a bad idea?

 

[ZANEYchickenguy]

My run is 15 square feet per chicken

 

[3KillerBs]

Is 2.5 square feet a bad idea?

My run is 15 square feet per chicken

It's about half what they ought to have. It might work if they have 24/7/365 access to their run and you never have any reason to confine them to the coop. Some breeds are more tolerant of close quarters than others but, as a general rule, the tighter the quarters the more likely you are to have behavioral issues and disease.

Commercial flocks are kept in that kind of density or even tighter, but they use intensive management techniques to keep the level of sanitation and ventilation adequate. Additionally, commercially-kept hens are often debeaked to prevent cannibalism.

For 9 hens you will also need at least 9 linear feet of roost and it might be better to have more so as to allow the pecking order to operate and the subordinate birds to distance themselves from the dominant birds.

This thread might help you visualize how much space an adult chicken occupies: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/to-help-visualize-space-requirements.1438231/

I don't think you've posted the exact dimensions of your coop and run in your other thread. If you do and you show us photos of both coop and run from various angles we might be able to help you take the best possible advantage of your available space so that your chickens will be healthy and not stressed.

 

[aart]

I don't think you've posted the exact dimensions of your coop and run in your other thread.

Nor tell us what your climate is...which is most important when calculating space.
Tho that thread went a bit off kilter.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/deep-litter-method-ventilation-question.1439411/