Expert opinions wanted: Is this coop/run big enough?

[heidimull]

The picture above is the newly constructed chicken coop that my husband made for me last weekend. A friend of ours has an abundance of hens and gave us more than I had expected so I am concerned now that I don't have enough room in the run for the girls. I have one big red hen (I don't know the breed), 3 juvenile silkies and one chick. I am going to eventually allow them to roam in the yard for an hour or so each evening but my two standard poodles need to learn to leave them alone first. So my question is this; should we just add on to what we already have or does it look like I have enough room already in the run? My goal is just to have happy, healthy chickens and any advice would be most appreciated.

 

[coolcanoechic]

What is the square footage of both the coop and the run? Everyone here goes by 4 sq ft per bird inside the coop and 10 sq ft per bird outside. There is an exception though. If you have small birds, then you can fit more. However, I cannot remember the square footage for small birds, probably because I don't have any. I'm sure someone will pipe in on that and help us out,

 

[coolcanoechic]

BTW.....

 

[heidimull]

Thanks for the Welcome! I think the whole run/coop is 8x10; I'm pretty sure we're just going to go ahead and extend it out a bit and make more room for the hens. It looks like most everyone that builds a coop eventually starts to think their isn't enough room

Most of the hens are small except for Big Red and she seems to dominate everybody else.

 

[coolcanoechic]

8 x 10? It doesn't look 8 ft wide. With 3 silkies and 2 hens, it should be ok, but I wouldn't add any more birds. There's lots of useful information on this site. Check out the learning center section. It's great reading and you can have so many questions answered about chickens. I really like your new coop. It would be great to see more pictures of it.