coop size- too small? what if I add a loft?

[longranger]

So how much ground space is recommended per chicken assuming that they will be limited to the coop?

 

[Chirpy]

So how much ground space is recommended per chicken assuming that they will be limited to the coop?

If you are referring to the coop (which is what most people do refer to it as) as the inside space then a minimum of 4 sq. feet per standard size chicken; run space (outside) should be at least 10 sq. feet per standard size chicken.

I have a board (basically a droppings board) under my roosts about 2 1/2 feet off the ground. That opened up all the space under the roosts for my chickens to use - and they do. That gave my chickens an additional 2x8 of floor space in my coop. Only rarely do I see my chickens actually wandering around on the board itself, they can they just don't, like Pat said.

The other thing that people often forget is that the square footage is taken up by anything sitting or hanging over the floor (waterers, feeders, nest boxes, etc.) so you need to include extra square footage to allow for that.​

 

[Torch404]

Here is a pic of my split coop. The only time they are in the top section is to use the nest (milk crate) and to roost at night. It's much smaller then what you have though, but they never just spend time in the top part.

 

[Raleigh]

I made this coop with a roosting "loft" and a roof top "loft":

www.conniescoop.blogspot.com

At this point, the 4 chickens we have seem to spend 95% of their time in the coop and lower run so I would not consider the additional loft space as square footage for the count.