Enough space.

Newbie08

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I am new to raising chickens and I need to know if I built my run/coop big enough. I have 2 buff o's, 2 barred rocks, 2 rainbow layers, 2 polish crest, and 1 "pan fry" straight run. I built my run at 12' x 8' and my coop which stands inside the run at 4' x 4'. Is that enough room for 9 birds. I don't have money to expand yet so I just wanted to know if they will be cramped. And ,if they are cramped, what it will cause. Thanks for the help.
 
Your run is big enough for nine birds but if you plan to keep them all you'll want to expand your coop. The general rule of thumb is 4 square feet of space in the coop per bird, so right now your coop is big enough for four full grown birds. You'll want it to be at least 36 square feet to keep all nine in there comfortably.
 
Your run is just about ok. What is your climate like, your house might be ok if your climate is hot or mild. How many days a year would you usually have snow.
 
The answer is, “It depends”. It will depend on your management methods, your climate, how you built the run, and some luck on the personalities of your individual chickens. If the combination of these things allow you to give them access to both the coop and the run when they are awake you will probably be OK but if nine chickens have to stay locked in the coop very long when they are awake, you could see serious problems. It doesn't matter if the room is in the coop itself or coop plus run; what matters is that space is available when they need it.

Have you laid out the inside of that coop? You may have a huge challenge giving them enough roosting space and putting the feed and water in there where they won’t poop in it while they sleep. You may need to feed and water them outside to give more space in the coop and to keep these things clean.

You can follow the link in my signature to get my thoughts on space. It might help you set up management techniques that might help you.

Good luck.
 
I live in Kansas so the weather changes by the hour but we have no more than 24 inches of snow per year and I have never see it on the ground more than 10 days in a row. How much roosting space is recommended? And I figured my water and food will go outside. Roosting pole is 36" which I can see now maybe being a problem.
 
In a 4' x 4' coop, for nine hens I'd use two roosts that reached all the way across. Put one about 12” from one wall and the other 12” horizontal away from that. That should give your breeds plenty of room to roost.

The general recommendations are between 8” to 12” per chicken. They don’t need that much room once they are settled in for the night, but they need extra room to get up there and move around to get to their favorite roosting spots. You have enough chickens that 9” to 10” each should be enough but that’s more than 4’ so that’s why I suggest two roosts all the way across.

The higher the roosts, the more clear landing space they need when they spread their wings and hop down so try to keep them as low as reasonable. They need to be higher than anything you don’t want them sleeping in, like nests. They poop a lot while asleep. The way I determine roost height is to determine the height of the floor, including any bedding, then position the nests. Then make the roosts a little higher than that.

In that tight space you might consider putting your nests under the roosts and use the top of the nests as a droppings board. They do pop a lot at night. If you can collect that poop it is great in compost and can significantly delay how often you need to clean the coop.

I addressed some of this in that link in my signature, but the more you crown them, the harder you have to work, for example in poop management. The more you crowd them the more likely you are to have behavioral problems that can range from bullying or feather-picking all the way to cannibalism. The less space you have the less flexibility you have in dealing with any problems that pop up.
 
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And I'll add one going across my clean out door (where photos were taken from) too. I think they will do just fine with that. If not then we will just have to add on. Will I be able to tell if the birds are not happy with the new digs?
 

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