Coop Shame

[chcknwhisperer]

I have a "store-bought" coop I cannot return. It is WAY TOO SMALL!!! I wouldn't have gotten it if I had known (online store). Chalking it up to experience and I am working on making a homemade chicken run and possibly a chicken tractor.

 

[RichM]

If you look at the options for store bought coops, they always tell you how many chickens you can put in there, and it's usually about 1 sq foot per bird, which is only 25 percent of what everyone around here would say. I really wonder what the number needs to be, and who figured it out, and if anyone has success with keeping chickens in 3 sq feet per bird instead of 4.

 

[tmarsh83]

If you look at the options for store bought coops, they always tell you how many chickens you can put in there, and it's usually about 1 sq foot per bird, which is only 25 percent of what everyone around here would say. I really wonder what the number needs to be, and who figured it out, and if anyone has success with keeping chickens in 3 sq feet per bird instead of 4.

4/10 is just the "safe" number to use. My coop is slightly less than that, and will be closer to three than four by this summer. I expect no problems. Here's why.

A) the free range. The coop is for roosting and laying. Even in winter, they get out and stretch their legs because rarely is the entire run snowed in. They aren't confined. Confinement changes everything.

B) 4/10 matters LESS, the larger the area gets.

I think it was @aart I saw talking about it this first, but I makes a load of sense. If you have a 12 sq ft coop, and three birds in it, if you figure the birds use 1 sq ft, that leaves 9 sq ft for anthing and everything else. If you feed or water inside the coop, there's another couple feet gone. So when one bird needs to get "away" it only has 9 sq ft to get away into. That is essentially a conjoined area. Every sq ft is going to touch every other available sq ft. If that same rule is applied to an area 120 sq ft, and 30 hens, then those 30 hens have 90 sq ft of unoccupied space they can move to.

If, as you asked, you try to get birds in 3 sq ft, that area could house 40 hens. And there is still, 80 sq ft for them to move to.

If, however, you apply 3 sq ft to our first coop, you have only 6 sq ft of free space for them to try to move to.

Does that make sense?

 

[aart]

Wasn't me @tmarsh83 , but it does make sense.

 

[PastaChickenBoo]

I'm just scared that we won't be able to cram five fully grown chickens into what's like a six (give or take) foot square coop. My mom said that if it just can't work, we'll just build a bigger one (but I stink at building!).

 

[RichM]

I'm just scared that we won't be able to cram five fully grown chickens into what's like a six (give or take) foot square coop. My mom said that if it just can't work, we'll just build a bigger one (but I stink at building!).

Here's what happened to me. I had one of those puny store bought coops that was supposed to house 4 chickens (5 sq feet total!) and once my three hens started laying eggs, they suddenly needed more space and now they prefer to stay outside at night! They can't survive outside, so I have to grab them and put them in every night. My run is 20'x20' so a small coop is just a nighttime problem. I am now in emergency mode, double-timing a new larger coop. You should plan ahead for that.

 

[chcknwhisperer]

No, not always. They just said "small coop." I didn't know that meant "store display size!" LOL! Anyway, I will be very clear when I re-sell. We are building a chicken run this weekend and will be looking at options for coops. The ducks will be ready for it in about 2 weeks! Yikes!

 

[rosemarythyme]

It's not that chickens CAN'T survive being crammed into a small coop (obviously in factory farms chickens are crammed in pretty tightly and they debeak them so they can't peck each other) but you're going to have a higher potential for behavior and health problems due to stress from the crowding. So if possible you want to stop those problems from ever starting by trying to give them as much space as possible.

I admit I too have a coop from a mail-order kit, and it is on the smaller side plus I ended up with an extra bird, and so I've already done alterations to the coop that I could (removed nest box for roost space, then had to make a new next box). But my run is larger to compensate and they get access to that all day, and I've put stuff in there for the chickens to do, so I haven't had issues with them picking on each other.

 

[tmarsh83]

Wasn't me @tmarsh83 , but it does make sense.

I just attribute smart things I hear to you...

 

[tmarsh83]

The ratio is roughly the same. The volume is vastly increased in a larger space.

The yellow represents 3 birds in the smaller picture. Imagine it in thirds and you see how even if one of those chickens moves, it isn't AWAY from the other two chickens.

The opposite is the case in the larger area. Where there may be 30 birds, look at all that space there is that isn't occupied by birds that they can move away from each other.