How many can I have?

Date sort Score sort
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. The minimum recommended space for chickens is 4 sq. ft. of floor area in the coop per bird not including the space taken up by the nesting boxes and 10 sq. ft. of ground area in the run per bird. That means with a pen of 200 square feet, you could have up to 20 chickens, assuming that you have a coop in addition to the pen of at least 50 sq. ft. Keep in mind that these are bare minimums. More is better as overcrowding can quickly lead to aggression, fights, biting and feather plucking, and even cannibalism. Keep in also that the recommended ratio of roosters to hens is 1 rooster for every 10 hens. As they mature and their hormones kick in, too many roosters will become very hard physically on your hens; over-breeding them, biting and plucking the feathers from their necks and backs, battering them, and potentially, seriously injuring them. The only reason you really need a rooster is to fertilize eggs for hatching and 1 rooster can easily handle 10-15 hens in this regard. Please feel free to ask any other questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Cheers.
 
Murphys Chick said:
I have a 200 square foot pen. How many chickens can I have?
Click to expand...

Welcome to BYC - there will be more information needed to give you a good answer to this.
1) the pen is 200 square feet, is there an actual housing unit (coop) and, if so, what size is that?
2) where are you located? Climate plays heavily in stocking.
3) what breed(s) are you planning to keep?
 
Alright
welcome-byc.gif
great to have you joining the BYC flock
frow.gif
 
welcome-byc.gif


Michael OShay has given you some good information and Ol Grey Mare has asked some good questions. I'm just saying hello!
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom