I Have A 8 X10 Foot Coop With A 10 X 40 Foot Five Foot Tall Covered Run How Manny Langshan Sized Chickens Can I Keep In It?
By the standard formula here, 40. However, you live where there is a lot of snow. If your chickens will choose to stay in the coop on a fair number of wintry days, then they would be much more likely not to start pecking and killing each other if you used the outdoor formula indoors, which would be 8. It depends on so many things. Is there really an 8x10 usable living space for them, or is part of that floor space taken up by nest boxes and roosts and poop boards and supplies? You have a covered run, but will it be comfortable for them to spend their days in it, not too much wind, not too wet, etc.? The personality of the chickens has a lot to do with it, too. My coop is a few feet bigger than that and I have 17. I am glad on windy, rainy days that they have the space. It is fine now but I would not want to put 23 more in there. I had 50 in there when they were babies, which was ok, but if we had not gotten most of the roosters into the freezer as soon as they were ready, we would have had problems. In the end, if they start bloodying each other then you have too many. Each situation is a little different.
A better question is how FEW chickens can you feel content with. The more space they have, the better... especially in a Minnesota winter. Personally I would not put more than about 5-6 chickens in there, but you might get lucky avoiding picking even if you have more. There is no way to tell. The problem is that picking/cannibalism can sometimes be impossible to cure (except via the stewpot) once it starts. Also personally my goal in chickenkeeping is to keep them reasonably happy and natural-behaving, not just uncannibalized. Good luck, have fun, Pat
I'd like to first start by saying that I am by no means an expert, but after doing a little research on Langshan chickens and finding that they are a large breed, I'd say to go with maybe 5 square feet per bird inside the coop which would mean 16 chickens should fit comfortably. As far as the run is concerned, you would have excess room for the 16 chickens. Always better to have more space than not enough, lol. The general rule of thumb on BYC is 4 sq feet per bird in the coop, and 10 sq feet per bird in the run. I hope this information helps. Good luck with your adventure with chickens!
