How many birds for 200 square ft TOTAL

[gotro17]

Hi! Our new coop to be will measure 6'X12'- attached to 165 square feet of run space...approximately. We are on horse property, but certainly not farmland- we are in Southern California. I'm curious to get a ballpark of how many standard birds I can have HAPPILY. We are looking at adding 4 more to our 8. Thanks in advance!

 

[Mrs. K]

Generally speaking - you should be good to go for 12 birds, and even a few more. A rule of thumb on here is about 4 square feet for the coop, and 10 square feet for the run, generally speaking, kind of sort of. Lots of factors come into it, but you should be good for 12 birds. I would think you could go as high as 16-18 birds.

Mrs K

 

[gotro17]

Generally speaking - you should be good to go for 12 birds, and even a few more. A rule of thumb on here is about 4 square feet for the coop, and 10 square feet for the run, generally speaking, kind of sort of. Lots of factors come into it, but you should be good for 12 birds. I would think you could go as high as 16-18 birds.

Mrs K

Thank you! We'd love to let a broody hen have her try at some hatching eggs sometime. The coop will be aviary style, built against our young daughters' playhouse... They'll be able to watch the girls through their windows. Here's a shot of the space we are working with. I'd just like to keep things "under control"...at least as much as we can with vhivken math on the rampage!

 

[aart]

12 could work....but keep in mind that it's best to have more, separate space, to integrate new birds.
I have 6 x16 and separate off 4 of the 16(with a separate run too) in the spring to grow out and help integrate new chicks.
It works good, would not want to integrate/add birds without that separate space.

 

[gotro17]

We have our coop we're using now, along with a 3'x8' tractor. When integrating new birds, I keep them in a extra large dog crate the first few nights until I'm comfortable with how they've gotten along three days in a row (setting up the 3x8 adjacent to the run on our coop now). I'm thinking we can simply set that inside the 8x18 portion of the run when integrating... Thoughts?