Cubic Feet per chicken ??? How many CF do i need

[gottalovemychickens]

as stated in the title , how many cubic feet of space do i need per chicken for a chicken coop. Im looking at building a coop for 45 chickens so yeah

 

[patandchickens]

Cubic feet is not normally the relevant issue -- chickens basically just inhabig two-dimensional space, so it is SQUARE feet you need to consider.

You will get various opinions, ranging from commercial chickens being given 1.5-2 sq ft per chicken (total), to people in very mild climates using 2 sq ft per chicken indoors plus at least 8-10 sq ft per chicken in the run, to 4 sq ft per chicken indoors plus at least 8-10 per chicken in the run, to much larger than that.

I am in the 'much larger than that' camp. Having tried keeping chickens at 4-6 sq ft per chicken indoors plus ample run, and at 10-15 sq ft per chicken indoors plus ample run, I would never go back to the smaller space.

It does depend a fair bit on climate, though -- if you live somewhere that never has weather that makes the chickens want to spend lots of time indoors, tighter indoor quarters are less likely to be a big deal, provided you have lots of outdoors for them to use.

For 45 chickens at, let's say, 3 ft per hen (which is rather crowded if they ever want to mostly stay in...) you would be building something like a 12x12 coop and something like a 12x36 run... MINIMUM.

Giving them more than the minimum is a pretty good idea, though, as it will mean less stress, less likelihood of bad problems like picking and cannibalism, and much easier management chores for you.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[gottalovemychickens]

alright ya , im looking right now at building a 12x12 or 12x14 with what ?? like 15 nests ??

Only reason im building another coop is because i cant believe the bad work i did on my other one and this time will be buying better products to build with

PEOPLE DO NOT USE OSB WOOD

DOES NOT WORK AT ALL AND ALL THAT GREAT

 

[cmom]

4 sq. ft. per bird. A coop approximately 10'x18' would be minimum for 45 birds.

 

[LovinMyPeeps]

You also need to consider the breeds. I have 32 sq ft for 9 birds... BUT I have 3 booted bantams, 2 d'uccle and 1 teeny little old english game bantam hen that make a parakeet look big!! Then I also have 2 barred rocks and a chantecler. I have enough space, but I feel if I had all heavy breeds this would be nowhere near enough space for my chickens. They also have a 1/4 acre to free range on, and according to a couple of old time chicken farmers here in town, they cannot stress heavily enough how important ventilation is.

 

[gottalovemychickens]

alright i will take that into mind everything everyone is saying . My chickens have 3 acres to roam on !!! So that should be good enough there right

 

[CHIC]

How do you protect them from predators? Do they ever wander off? I let my chickens out every day to roam but I'm really overprotective and watch them every minute. I wanna let them have more freedom but am afraid to. Any suggestions?

 

[gottalovemychickens]

well i have this system that i invented / built and when anything at all enter the 3 acres , it alerts me where the intruder is entering from and when i hear that go off , i walk outside with my .22 long range rifle and go check it out . Also when the intruder crosses that line it sends a loud loud noise and 9outta10 times that thing that crosses the line runs away

 

[CHIC]

What is the system, might I ask? Is it expensive?

 

[gottalovemychickens]

let me try and get a diagram scanned onto my computer and ill show you . Its hard to explain but with pictures its alot easier to understand . It can be expensive depending on how big of an area you want