Coop Question?

[Chicken0Boy]

Is my coop big enough for 4 standard size chickens (2 delawares, 1 ee, 1 turken) and 2 bantams (silkies)? The coop is a 6x6 sturcture and the run is 6x12. If it is how much space would I have left for more chickens or If I had a little more space I should just give the chickens as extra space?

 

[Junkmanme]

That's enuf room for twice that many chickens.

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Depends on how much run you want to give them. If you anticipate the chickens having to stay in the coop for extended periods of time during snow storms, monsoons, whatever, then they will need to have more square footage per bird. If you're in a tropical paradise with balmy ocean breezes blowing in then the birds will be outside a good bit and will require less room inside the coop.

A rule of thumb (that isn't written in stone) is that coop space is calculated at 4 square feet as a minimum per large fowl bird of coop space. Minimum run space is figured at 10 square foot per large fowl bird. Count the banties as 1/2 bird each...thus currently you can calculate things figuring you have 5 large fowl birds.

The following is going by the above "rule". Some people get by with more or less, but those are square footage amounts that have been found to work in most situations. Your mileage may vary.

You have 36 square feet of coop space. Figuring 4sqft per bird, that would calculate to 9 large fowl birds.

Your run is 72 square feet. Figuring 10 square feet per large fowl bird the run will handle 7 chickens.

You can see here that the ratio of your coop-to-run space is a little off. If you bumped the run up to a 6x16 then the run could handle the 9 large fowl chickens that the coop can handle.

More room is *always* better, whether it's in the run or coop but especially inside the coop, it's just better. Personally, I would go no more than the equivalent to 7 large fowl chickens. This would put your current sized run at the limit of the "10 sq ft rule" but would give a bit of buffer space inside the coop.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[Chicken0Boy]

Thanks sooo much you helped alot!

I will most likely expand the run, so more chickens in my future maybe!