How flexible is the coop sq. footage per bird?

[elmo]

Careful using that clear polycarb roofing! I tried it last winter for a coop I was only needing to use in the wintertime; this June, it registered a toasty 117 degrees inside that coop one sunny afternoon, more than 20 degrees hotter than the ambient outdoor temperature. When your daytime highs run into the 90's, you really don't need your coop getting any warmer.

I would worry less about square footage inside the coop than I would worry about scrimping on square footage in the run. Your birds are likely to use the coop only for roosting, so floor space isn't going to be as important as roost space. As long as you can manage to fit in enough roost space, your birds should do fine with a bit less than the 4 square feet per bird floor space.

 

[grendel]

In my opinion it all depends on how many treats you give you birds and the amount of free range time they have.I have 23 hens,standard and a few bantams,along with a mille fleur roo in a 4 ft by 6 ft coop with no complications.All of them have live in there and the 8 by 6 run for 2 years now.Hens lay like gangbusters and have hatched and raised sucessfully.

 

[Christie Rhae]

Well here is what a dork I am... I thought the whole thing was called a chicken coop. The little house, the run, everything. I thought the little house was called a hen house. lol. Ok so we have the chicken coop and the chicken run. lol... just keep learning Christie, just keep learning...

 

[makoman]

is it really necessary to "coop" up the chickens at night? I live in FL and wanted to have and open front on the nesting box area. 3sides of the coop will be solid but the front that faces out into the run area I was going to keep open Anyone have any answers to that?

 

[gryeyes]

It's not necessary at all. If you don't mind losing chickens when some predator gets 'em, by all means, don't close 'em up at night.

That, however, would not be my recommendation.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Wow, lots of hijacking going on here. Folks, please make your own threads!

First, the chickens will need a solid roof for the full shade, not one that lets any light in. Your winter won't even feel cold to them, but they do not tolerate heat well and can actually die over 100F without shade, etc. They must have shade, plenty of water, and breeze to tolerate heat.

I feel 16 birds would do fine in a 6 X 8 coop there, depending on the setup, maybe more. They need at least 9" of roost space per bird, and esp. in a small coop, 1' is better. The roosts need to be out of the rain so it can't blow in on them, but in summer they will need breeze. Nests would be best off the floor about 1' or more so they can walk under them easily. If they are on the floor, they don't count as sq ft space.

A good setup for our weather is a three sided coop with a predator proof run. Gives them ample air movement as well as security. I don't imagine you will re-do what you have to do this, but you might get a few ideas from this hot weather coops thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=163417&p=1

I have a 4 sided coop, but half of one wall and the people door on the opposite wall are not walls at all, they are hardware cloth. In addition, there is 6" to 8" or more of open air space between the walls and roof, on all 4 sides. I cover the people door with plastic in the winter; nothing else.

Adding artificial light to extend day length to 14-16 hours is something commercial egg producers do. There is no reason to do it "for their health." It is a debatable topic on here whether it is OK for them in order to get more eggs. I have done it both ways. I'll let you do your own reading up on this and decide for yourself. If you do, you'll want a timer as they should definitely not have a light on all night.

 

[laughingdog52]

I was planning a 2' space under the coop (coop will be 4 X 16) for the chickens to run around. Do I calculate this in the square footage?

 

[remington3006]

yes i would count it as run space. but like other people have said ventilatition is key if fact a whole wall of my coop is chicken fence. as long as there not shoulder to shoulder and are able to go out side you shuld be fine. as for chicken math here is how i do it 3 square feet of floor space in coop, at least 1 linior foot in roosting space, and 3 feet in the run.

 

[StupidBird]

The first / original post mentioned that part would be a greenhouse...won't that compound the humidity problems?

 

[Six2start]

so, rather than make another thread, i decided to ad my question here:
i am planning on keeping 6 chickens, hopefully five hens and one rooster
i ahve a box planned out roughly and my FLOOR space is planned to be
12' long(or as long as a 2x4x12 is, slightly shorter)
62" wide on the outside
6 nesting boxes, 3 on each end, running the width at 18" wide, 18" deep and 18" tall on the bottom end
one, tow or maybe even three roosting rods running the length of the box, above the nesting boxes
the bottom will be made with chicken wire(not sure how big the holes should be yet so any suggestions are welcome) so that when they poop the majority of the poop falls out the bottom and onto the ground, during the winter i will have multiple layers of newspapers on the bottom to cover this up and make it a bit easier to clean up

the roof will be slanted one direction, 6' wide by 12' long, i am thinking of putting an 8" deep garden bed on top to help insulate and maxamize space
the tallest wall will be four feet tall, from the base of the henhouse, not sure on angle of the height of the small wall just yet

all of this will of course be raised off the ground(i am not planning on clipping their wings so there isn't any ramp in my plans, because i will be ranging them, there would be nothing stopping a fox from running up the ramp and getting my girls, so i want them to just use their ability of flight to prevent this issue)


question is, is this enough space for 6 chickens?
i live in southeastern wyoming, so they might spend a lot of time inside during the winter, i want them to be as comfortable as possible. but i want to go as small as possible without negatively affecting their health so that in the cold of winter they are able to warm the space up easier(smaller space takes less energy to heat)

EDIT: if i were to put two roosting poles in there i could shorten the house to approx 10' and still provide them with 2' of roosting space a peice, would this also be adequate?