I have 5 isa Browns, 2 OEG, one silkie cross hens and 2 4 month old roosters( probably going to get rid of one) so for the 9 chickens I have a 6x6 coop and a 110 sq ft run. Seems sufficient. Any sceptics to my understanding of 3sqft per chicken (coop) and 7-10 for the run
Yes a lot of skepticism on that understanding. I don’t believe in magic numbers for much of anything to do with chickens, including how much room they need. We are each so unique in so many ways that no one magic number can cover all of us. If you want details on that follow the link in my signature. Considering you are in Ontario and the weather that means, you will probably be OK with that size flock provided you don’t keep the second rooster, don’t have a broody hen raise chicks with the flock, and don’t integrate new chickens in the future. I’d feel a lot better if I knew the run was set up so they can use it in your winter. You might even be able to get away with some extra but the tighter you shoehorn them in there the more your odds of bad things happening go up.
. Yes my run will be usuable in the winter I have it in a fairly sheltered area and will be shovelling it out and putting straw down for winter use.
I agree that each situation is different and feel like that space is perfectly fine for your amount of birds especially with the run always available to them. I base my decisions on my birds themselves as long as they are happy, healthy and not picking on one another then they have enough space regardless of what someone decided is the correct minimum space per bird.
