Flock size for small backyard

[smithhouse]

Hello everyone,

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our 4 day-old chicks from McMurrary next week. We chose 3 Dominique and 1 Turken (we put in an order with a bunch of friends). We have a postage-stamp for a backyard. Approximately 20sqft devoted to veg.garden, 10sqft patio, 20sqft devoted to kids swing area, and in the middle back (10 sqft) we are going to put our coop. We are going with the Garden Coop plans and will probably stick to them pretty closely. It calls for 9.5'x5' framing. I plan to extend it to 9.5'x7'. The coop will be 1/3 of that (3x7). I don't know how much more of a challenge it it to construct and mount external nests, but I would like to do so to provide more coop space. The hens will be mostly confined to the coop and run, but we plan to let them out in the yard when we go outside to play (ideally every day, but maybe more like every-other-day). I will want to eventually put a small fence up on the garden side, keeping them out of the veggies or possibly letting them in to find bugs under the strictest supervision. SO the actual yard space they will have access to will be minus the garden and patio. Not huge, but still beneficial, I'd think.

I would like to have as many hens as we comfortably can. A friend said she read a post about optimal backyard flock size on BYC, but I cannot find anything in the archives. Something about them being in a larger group provides them with a better sense of security. Does anyone know if the birds would fare better in a flock size of 6 rather than 4? Would the upkeep and noise of 6 birds be significantly more than 4? Knowing that my birds will be spending most of their time in a space of a 66.5sqft run and 21sqft coop, would 6 be overcrowding them? I have been researching and have seen the sqft formulas in the archives, but I would like someone with more real life experience and keeping of little backyard flocks to weigh in.

Perhaps I am just looking to be enabled to pick up a couple more cute little chickies at the local feed and seed. : ) But I do really want to provide the best home for our hens making sure they are as happy and healthy as they can be, and would love to hear from you guys with experience.

Thanks so much!

 

[sherrydeanne]

To be honest, every flock is different. I had 9 and got down to 4. The 4 had a strict heirarchy and there was less squabbling than when I had more. If you were thinking of going from 2 to 3, I'd tell you go with 3, but I don't think 4->6 is a big difference. You are fairly tight on space, and I can tell you that the poo difference will be noticeable if you go up.
I'm sure almost everyone else here will tell you to go for it, because we're enablers, but I'd honestly stick with your 4

Good luck and enjoy!! Oh, and up to you on the nest boxes but since you only need one, you could just mount it up off the floor; as long as they have room to easily go underneath, you're not losing any sf

 

[flockof4]

I have 4 with plenty of room and they seem to love it. They set up a pecking order immediately and all snuggle day and night with some pecking/mothering by the queen hen, an Ameraucana who is the oldest by two weeks. We have different situations, but I would say start with four. Or you can start with 6 and if it's too tight, give one or two away. Good luck and have fun becoming a backyard chicken farmer.

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:

I think your square footages may be off a tad....for instance, at 10 sqft your "back area" would have to be something like 2'x5', or 3'x3.333', or something like that. Square footage equals "length x width" The largest coop footprint that you're considering would cover something like 66.5 square feet.

I, in my opinion of course, would stay with the four chickens that you're planning for. That will give each chicken more room in the coop than the "4 square foot coop rule" recommends. More room is always better. I'm not familiar with the coop design, but being 3x7 I would think that there will be run area beneath the coop so this should give you basically 66 square feet of run area...which is more than the standard "10 square feet run rule" recommends. Having more room for both the coop and run will help you to keep things clean and the chickens happier. When we start crowding the chickens in is when problems start popping up more often. Remember, too, that the "rules" are the *minimum* recommended areas...and that those rules are not written in stone.

Having said all that, you could stick 6 chickens in there...even 10 or 12 (some places recommend 2-3 square foot per bird). But "keeping chickens" isn't going to be nearly as much fun with those population densities.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[elmo]

I completely agree with Ed's post. I think you and your chickens will be much happier and healthier with more space rather than less. And don't forget, four chickens are going to produce a lot of eggs, as many as two dozen a week. Do you need more than that?

 

[fiberart57]

I have six chickens and a huge backyard; about 100' x 50', and this winter I built a 100 sq. ft. run for them so they didn't wander all over the yard too much because they were digging holes everywhere. That's what chickens do. So now they're contained until evening when I get home from work and I let them out for a couple of hours.

Even with four chickens be aware, if you aren't already, that they will dig up your lawn, scratch the base of the roses to find bugs, poop on the patio and cause general chicken mayhem. It's fun in a way, but I really needed some time to let the yard heal.

Minimum spacing is 4 sq ft per bird inside house and 10 sq ft outside. I have a playhouse coop with a 60 sq foot run attached but added the 100 sq ft to their space this winter for a total of 160 sq ft. More is better, but you are limited with your yard size. My experience is that at 10 sq ft per bird, they still get kind of crowded and start arguing with each other.

Good luck. Mary

 

[cobrien]

I agree on the number 4. When they get crowded there will be more fighting and they are less happy. It is a good place to start.

 

[smithhouse]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Intheswamp, thanks for pointing out my Barbie math (remember girls, math is tough!). What I mean is I have 20x20, 10x10, etc. The areas are like squares of my yard, so I got my wires crossed. We have framed the coop/run. It is going to be 75sqft (10x7.5). The henhouse will float on one end 3 feet up. It will be 3x7.5. We picked up our 4 sweet chickies today. I learned how to tell a BR chick from a Dominique chick thanks to BYC posters. I felt really good sticking with my four (3 doms 1 turken) when a friend asked if I wanted an extra Black Astralorp that they sent. I declined. But later that day, I called her back. I learned that the hatchery had included 3 extra. My friend now had 15, really hopeful to have a flock of 10, and ordered 12 to be safe. So I said what the heck (twist my arm, right), and she is going to bring the little fuzz ball over tomorrow. Now I just need to exercise the greatest restraint and stay away from the cursed feed store!! I do not need green eggs, I do not need green eggs, I do not need green eggs. And, there is always next year, there is always next year..... : )

 

[Egg_newton]

100sq feet should be tons of space even for 5 chickens. I think each needs 14 sq ft each. (4sq ft coop and 10 sq ft run)???? to be happy if your not free ranging. Someone please correct me if that incorrect.

 

[BoerneChickens]

I'm still building my Garden Coop but it is going very well and everyone has commented on how nice it looks in the yard.

Good luck with yours - your modificatioons are similar to what I did (tweaked it to 10' x 6'8" and so far its all working fine!