Do I have enough room

[Poppafrog]

At the moment I have 13 RIR that are about 2.5 months old. My coop is 6.5x4 and almost 6ft tall. The run I have is 25x10. I will probably end up with 7-8 hens and 1 rooster after I get rid of the other roosters. Will that be enough room?

 

[ninabeast]

I've read that 2-4 ft in the coop per chicken (depending on who you ask), and up to 10ft per chicken in the run. Going by that, I think you'll be just fine. I think I also read someone say not to forget to include roost space in your coop calculations.

 

[Poppafrog]

I have 2 roost poles in my coop. 1 going the full lenght and the other going from front to back. They also like to sit on top of the nest boxes as well. LOL
The roost poles were not put in during this pic.

 

[teach1rusl]

There's really only experience and opinions to go by. IMO, if you're in an area that doesn't really get winters, that space is fine. But if you get cold/snows, then I personally wouldn't keep more than 6 birds in that space - referring to your housing, because your run is ample. But my birds are more pets than utility. The more space they have per bird makes cleaning easier too. My birds always get crankier over the winter months, and although my pop door was open for them every day last winter, I defintely saw shorter fuses/less tolerance from them (toward one another) despite having about 8 sq. ft each of indoor space...

 

[Poppafrog]

Im in North MS so we get snow about 1-2 times a winter and not that much. I have a heat light to run out there when it does get cold. This is my first chicken time so there will be alot of trial end error.

 

[teach1rusl]

If you're planning on 8 hens, then you will only need about 3 nest boxes - they tend to use the same one or two. That would save you some space - if you could leave the three up high (wall mount them), then that would open up more floor space.

 

[Poppafrog]

Ok thanks. Ill look into that.

 

[BoltonChicken]

Yep, you only need a maximum of three nesting boxes there. The rule of thumb for space is 4 Square Feet of floor space per chicken in the coop. 10 Square Feet of floor space per chicken in the run. Therefore you
have coop space for 6 standard chickens in the coop and space for 25 standards in the run. Space is vital for chicken health, so unless you increase your coop area I would not have more than 6 chickens.

 

[bryan99705]

I agree that the coop is too small. You need to enlarge the interior floor space (height is for you, not them) Keeping the nests off the floor helps too as that area does not count in the calculation of interior footage

 

[Poppafrog]

Ok thanks another note written down...LOL I will cut my boxes down to 3 and raise them off the floor. It looks like about half of the 13 will be roosters so I will be thining the roosters down to 1. Now to figure out what to do with extra roosters???????