Four Foot/Ten Foot Space per Chicken Questions

[bhawk-23]

We built a 30 sq ft coop and 92 sq ft predator proofed run with the intention of 6 laying hens. Due to local purchasing requirements we ended up with 8. The original girls turned the run into an open air coop and free range morning to roosting time. Not sure if they were hot, too confined or just spoiled but they certainly had their own preference.

Always error on the side of more space (and ventilation!) when possible. Especially for when chicken math sets in.

@U_Stormcrow I’m intrigued on the breeds of your birds!

 

[aart]

4/10 is a thumb rule based on a lot of collective experience.

It's been collectively repeated, ad nauseum, but I think it's probably based more on doubling some commercial requirements.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It's been collectively repeated, ad nauseum, but I think it's probably based more on doubling some commercial requirements.

That explanation is one I find...

Compelling.

 

[3KillerBs]

In the space requirements per chicken, of 4 sq ft coop, 10 sq feet run, that is for birds no matter what the mature size, except for bantams.

Is there any kind of info/study on space requirements per weight of bird?

These are *guidelines* rather than hard and fast *rules*, but they are generally considered baseline minimums.

Like all guidelines, they're a starting point that you can begin with and then adjust based on your experience with your flock in your climate under your conditions.

This is all very informative. Thank you. I live in south Louisiana, and a neighborhood they have to stay in the run, cannot free range.

Look into a open air coop and run. Your area would be perfect for that type. You might be able to stretch it out to 5-6 hens depending on how it's configured.

@3KillerBs lives in a similar climate, and could possibly help you out.

I'm in North Carolina at the border between zone 7b and 8a, so I get a bit more winter than you do, but I find that an Open Air coop is excellent for my situation.

Hot Climate Chicken Housing and Care

If you have particular environmental conditions, you may need more space - or less. "Open Air" coop designs effectively combine the 4 and the 10, allowing one to get by with less than 14 total, often w/o issues. OTOH, if seasonal weather keeps your birds out of the run portion for lengthy periods, the 4 should likely be increased.

This is good info.

Additionally, the numbers get more flexible when dealing with very larger spaces that allow more room for birds to avoid personality conflicts.

It's been collectively repeated, ad nauseum, but I think it's probably based more on doubling some commercial requirements.

It's very old information. I don't recall if this book from 1921, Poultry For the Farm and Home (from International Harvester's ag department), included a suggested area for outdoor ranging or not and I'm not going to re-read the entire thing just now, but it did include the space figures for inside the hen house:

"For small flocks figure on four or five square feet of floor space per hen; for large flocks figure on three or four square feet per hen. Good dimensions are: For 25 hens—12 feet deep by 10 feet long. For 75 hens—16 feet deep by 10 feet long. For 100 to 150 hens—16 feet by 32 feet. For larger flocks build a house 20 to 24 feet deep."

I don't know if that came from any particular studies done >100 years ago or if it was based on the collective experience of people keeping chickens before modern "factory farm" arrangements had come to be and thus in an environment more like a modern backyarder's flock than a modern commercial flock.

I don't have personal experience with a lot of different breeds, but if my space were tight I'd be sure to get ones that, in the words of the chick catalogs, "tolerate confinement" and avoid the ones that are listed as "good rangers" since those terms *may* indicate the birds' activity level and thus, potentially, their space needs.

 

[Sally PB]

"Abundance is a social lubricant"

Excellent advice.

When my dividing fence comes down and the littles no longer have "their own" space, I will be adding more clutter to the run. Places to hide, places to be (more perches, to take advantage of the vertical space) and stuff to do. A big pile of leaves to scratch through gives everyone something new to do. So does a bucket of weeds from my garden.

Boredom is a big problem in enclosed spaces. For any animal.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

I don't think you will find the kind of study you are looking for. Who is going to pay for that study? The commercial operations pay for studies but those are about how to most efficiently and economically produce commercial chickens. We don't manage ours that way. Our goals are different. I'm not willing to pay for the kind of study you are think abut.
But there is a more fundamental question, what would be the parameters of that study? We keep them in so many different climates for so many different goals, with different flock make-ups, management methods, and feeding regimes that I would not know what to study to make that many of us happy. Some free range a lot, some not at all. Some let them forage for a lot of what they eat, some carefully monitor every bite they eat. Some feed treats, some don't. Some let broody hens raise chicks with the flock, some don't. Some like you can let there chickens in the run every day of the year while further north the chickens may be stuck in the coop section only for weeks.

For some people that 4 and 10 you often see is plenty, it's overkill, more than the absolute minimum you need. For some, it is not enough. You might follow the link in my signature below to see some of the things that I consider important to consider.

There are videos of commercial operations with chickens jammed shoulder to shoulder in warehouses pawned off as free range with no regard to 4/10. We had a commercial turkey grower in our area where the birds would have to bull their way through the crowd in an open air coop. Egg layers kept in cages till they're spent and then ground up for dog food and fertilizer. For those of us that keep birds the 4/10 gives us piece of mind knowing we are giving them some ease and comfort. One more thing, CAPT OVERKILL is my hero!

 

[BonnieBlue]

Excellent advice.

When my dividing fence comes down and the littles no longer have "their own" space, I will be adding more clutter to the run. Places to hide, places to be (more perches, to take advantage of the vertical space) and stuff to do. A big pile of leaves to scratch through gives everyone something new to do. So does a bucket of weeds from my garden.

Boredom is a big problem in enclosed spaces. For any animal.

I fully agree with that.

My chicks have the run of the coop, because they are my first ones. I built a little ladder to help them explore getting up to the roosts, have small "play roosts", and they love the nesting boxes which have nesting pads, as opposed to the sand in the rest of the coop.

The run already has an old step ladder and I built a swing for them. As soon as they start going into the run, even more room and things to alleviate boredom.