my coop is 130cm (4.3 ft) in length and 110cm (3.6 ft) in width, the height is 110cm (3.6 ft), the coop is well secured from bad weather, we rarely have snow here, it's either rainy or sunny in winter, the run is 7.50meters (24 ft) in length and 3.50meters (11.5 ft) in width.
That should help people not familiar with metric to understand the dimensions.
Chickens do not think in terms of coop space versus run space, those are human concepts. If they have enough room they have enough room, whether it is in the coop, in the run, or in both. I think of the space system, not in the individual components. You might follow the link in my signature below to see some of my thoughts on space requirements.
NatJ covered many of the issues of a small coop. If that door is open 24/7 many of those issues go away. If they are not trapped inside that tiny space then one will go outside if another starts beating it up. But it is not always that simple.
You sometimes get snow. When my chickens wake up to a new white snowy world they don't want to go outside. They don't like change and that is a big change. Sometimes it takes three or so days after a snow before mine work up enough courage to venture outside. Mine hate a cold wind. Cold doesn't seem to bother them. I leave my door open during the day and let them decide if they want to go outside or not. Mine go outside in temperatures probably colder than you will ever see but if a cold wind is blowing, they are seeking shelter from it. There can be days weather locks them in that coop section even with that door open. What do you do if you see that the run is not as predator proof as you think it is? If that happened to mine I'd lock them in the coop until I dealt with that problem. To me the big issue with having such a small coop is that you have no flexibility in dealing with issues. But as long as they can get outside those rules of 4 square feet per bird in the coop are fairly meaningless if yours are not limited to the coop.
Then you have the practical issues. Where do you feed and water? You do not want them pooping in those from the roosts so you don't have any real room in the coop. Are they sleeping in the nests because of lack of room? Are your nests even in there? With that many crowded into that small area at night you probably have to work a lot harder on poop management than I do.
If you consider that a safe sleeping area only and not a coop in a more traditional sense you might be OK. That's not a bad amount of room for roosts only for 8 chickens. But if they are doing much other than roosting in there it is really tight. You can probably tell I prefer a lot more room.
That should help people not familiar with metric to understand the dimensions.
Chickens do not think in terms of coop space versus run space, those are human concepts. If they have enough room they have enough room, whether it is in the coop, in the run, or in both. I think of the space system, not in the individual components. You might follow the link in my signature below to see some of my thoughts on space requirements.
NatJ covered many of the issues of a small coop. If that door is open 24/7 many of those issues go away. If they are not trapped inside that tiny space then one will go outside if another starts beating it up. But it is not always that simple.
You sometimes get snow. When my chickens wake up to a new white snowy world they don't want to go outside. They don't like change and that is a big change. Sometimes it takes three or so days after a snow before mine work up enough courage to venture outside. Mine hate a cold wind. Cold doesn't seem to bother them. I leave my door open during the day and let them decide if they want to go outside or not. Mine go outside in temperatures probably colder than you will ever see but if a cold wind is blowing, they are seeking shelter from it. There can be days weather locks them in that coop section even with that door open. What do you do if you see that the run is not as predator proof as you think it is? If that happened to mine I'd lock them in the coop until I dealt with that problem. To me the big issue with having such a small coop is that you have no flexibility in dealing with issues. But as long as they can get outside those rules of 4 square feet per bird in the coop are fairly meaningless if yours are not limited to the coop.
Then you have the practical issues. Where do you feed and water? You do not want them pooping in those from the roosts so you don't have any real room in the coop. Are they sleeping in the nests because of lack of room? Are your nests even in there? With that many crowded into that small area at night you probably have to work a lot harder on poop management than I do.
If you consider that a safe sleeping area only and not a coop in a more traditional sense you might be OK. That's not a bad amount of room for roosts only for 8 chickens. But if they are doing much other than roosting in there it is really tight. You can probably tell I prefer a lot more room.
