Enough room for my 6-8 chickens?

CheekyChooks

Chirping
8 Years
Apr 22, 2011
137
0
99
Doncaster
I have 6 bantams (silkie, silkie crosses and a polish) and 2 standards (buff orp and shamo). I may not be keeping all 8 because some will probably end up being roos and will unfortunately have to be rehomed.

Assuming however that I have around 6 chickens (mainly bantams) would the coop I have plus an extended run be suffient for most days? They will be able to free range in the evening for a couple of hours and for about 4 hours a day on weekends but most of the time they will be locked up safely in this space.

The current coop is about 3ft x 7ft (its 7.5 with the nests but they don't count). I intend to extend the run to cover the whole patio which is about 8ft x 8.5ft total area including the coop.

There may be times (at night for instance) when they will be shut up in the main coop. Would this be considered an acceptable area for 6 chickens?

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Cute coop!

In my opinion, it does look too small for 6-8 chickens though. The rule of thumb is 4 sq ft inside the coop and 10 sq ft of run space per chicken. I think you will be giving them just enough run space, but the inside coop part looks a little small.
 
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I was calculating 8 x 8.5 to get 68 sq ft of run space. I guess the indoor bit would be a little cramped? Maybe I'll have to just keep around 4 chickens ...
 
If you have bantams, you can get away with less space.

Who knows, you may end up with 4 hens and 4 roos, then you won't have a problem.

Will they be locked in the coop with the small run, or just the coop?

Can you put a roost inside the small run part?
 
Well at night I've been locking them up in just the coop part to stop any drafts getting to them and then opening the pop door to the run at about 6.30 am each morning. Usually they don't bother coming down unless its really sunny. They roots and lounge in the coop alot of the time.

I guess I could add a few roots into the run part and not shut up the coop at night ... I just worry about them getting chilly, I guess.

I think I have at least 3 roos so I probably won't have anything to worry about but you never know!
 
OK, I feel a little better now. I guess I'll just see how big everyone grows and I'll know from there. Plus I'm gonna have a roo or two I'm sure ...
 
Unfortunately, I don't have any advice for you since I'm new to all of this, but let me just say that your coop is beautiful! I love your raised bed, too!
 
Your little coop is just fine for the 8 of them to ROOST and LAY in. But they must be let out to scratch in all that wonderful grass all day and every day. Unless of course you add on 80 sf of run for them. Seriously there will be problems if you try and keep even 6 of them in that set up for most of the day.
 

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