ok- we drew up plans for hte new coop and run. the building will have 2 sections- one for banties, and one for large breeds... the banty area will be 4x10 with a 10x10 run. The large breed area will be 10x15 with a 10x20 run.... How many birds can this accommodate roughly? and we will also free range the large birds....
How many do you plan on having of each. The area you are talking about will hold quite a few birds. Especially if you are free ranging the reds.
If you go by the general standards of 4 sq. feet per standard chicken you would be able to house 37. 2 sq. feet per bantam would be 20.
You'll get varying opinions, depending on what minimum standards folks go by, the weather conditions of their area, and how they view their chickens. I go by the LF - 4sq. ft. each for housing and 10 sq. ft. for run space, and Bantams, 2 sq. ft of housing and 5 sq. ft. of run space. Of course if you're in an area that doesn't get winters, then you can get by with a little less housing space. But in your case, your housing space is actually more ample than your run space for your LF, proportionally. Your bantam coop would be fine for 20 chickens. Your LF housing would most likely be fine for 37 chickens, but your run would be more suitable for 20 birds. So you would need to be sure that they WERE out free ranging daily, as that would be a LOT of birds in a fairly small outdoor space (if you were going for that many birds...lol). Of course if you are in an area that gets winters, I'd err on the side of caution and go with a smaller amount of birds, because although mine spend almost no time in the coop now, winter time is another story. I like giving my birds more space than minimum recommendations.
I agree you will get different answers depending on the person, I have both my standard chickens and bantams in one pen and free range both I have 15 chicken 4 bantams 11 regular stand size and there pen is okay for a few days confinement but I try and let them out to free range everyday even in bad weather keeps them from getting bored, I would free range the bantams also since they get bored just like standard size hens unless there are predator problems I am not sure.
First thing you'll need to know is how many your county/city will allow. Then decide how far you are willing to "stretch" those numbers. If you are out where you have no neighbors who will complain then I wouldn't worry about the countie's/city's numbers.
I don't have to worry about neighbors or city requirements, we are outside the city limits and have 3 acres. Not sure yet how many birds we will have, but am glad to hear that we will have ample room. we had them together this year and used a section of our barn that is 8X24 and had a 10by20 run but free ranged them mostly...the run was more for when we were going to be gone. at one point we had close to 100 birds, but they were mostly young pullets that we had for sale. We did well ordering heavy layers and raising them over the winter and then selling them this spring as layers.so will probably do it again. My son is going to be old enough to join 4H this year though, and would like to show some bantys, which is why we want to have a seperate banty pen.
