How Many chickens can fit?

[animalsroc4evr]

We have a 10ft. by 10 ft pen (6 ft. high) and I'm curious how many chickens can fit.... Right now we have 4 chicks and 2 ducklings, but I'm so hooked on chickens that I'm thinking of getting more, yes many people warned me but I didn't listen, thought it'd be easy to put a limit on my flock.... anyways they would get about 4 hours of free range each day (we have a hawk that lives around here so the chickens have to be monitored while they are out, even though our whole yard is fenced it)

So is 4 chickens and 2 ducks the max we can have in a 10X10 ft pen? I hope not! lol

I'm a sucker!

Gretchen

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

100 sq feet divided by 4 is 25 chickens...if you do 3 sq feet you can get 33 and 1/3 lol

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

BTW welcome to BYC!!

 

[animalsroc4evr]

thanks for the welcome

lol that's a lot of chickens

! I'm was just thinking of a total of 10 chickens, that would be 5 ameraucana and 5 Road Island reds, that would make me happy

Gretchen

 

[mstricer]

Quote:
If they aren't lock in coop 24/7 without getting out they only need 2 sqft per a bird, you just need plenty of perches. I know alot of people will disagree. I have 32 birds in my coop, 2 of which are roo's, I have no problems no one is beat up and they have plenty of room to run around, they even go out in the winter my coop is 8x8

 

[tammyd57]

Quote:
Your pen is 10'X10'. That's plenty of room for a lot of chickens if they can also have free range every day. How much room is in your coop? The COOP size will really determine how many can fit.

 

[animalsroc4evr]

Your pen is 10'X10'. That's plenty of room for a lot of chickens if they can also have free range every day. How much room is in your coop? The COOP size will really determine how many can fit.

Well I guess we really don't have a "coop" we are building open nest boxes, the pen is covered with a trap to protect the birds from the weather and predators... Is this bad? should we have a "real" chicken coop? or will open nesting boxes be okay? I'm a BIG newbie so you have to bear with me

Gretchen​

 

[teach1rusl]

Okay...I'm gonna' be a big dark cloud here. I would not keep more than 10 total birds in your pen. Normally, for folks who have a coop/hen house, it's loosely recommended 4 sq. ft. per standard sized bird, and 10 sq. feet each in the run. Your hen house and run are kind of the same thing (or you don't have a hen house, whichever). And whether you need a solid structure or not depends on your weather. Temps are mild for you guys, but if you get a big storm, with wind and rain blowing at a steep slant, is there an area or section where the chickens are protected??? That's important to have. Also, a tarp alone is not adequate protection from potential predators such as raccoons, etc.

If your birds free ranged most of the day, I'd say more birds. But not with four hours (and maybe there are days where they won't be able to be let out for some reason???). My girls have tons of room in their run, and I still feel guilty if I can't let them out for a while on certain days (like you, mine are only out when I can keep an eye on them).

 

[Cara]

10 square feet per bird of pen.

4 square feet per bird of house.

Picture 25 birds in a 10 x 10 pen, it's not pretty.

 

[mstricer]

Quote:
Like I said before I don't have any problems with mine. I did the research and looked it up on web sites. And most every book and site stated 2 sqft per a bird in coop and 10 in a run, all stated that the perching was the most important part. My birds are not all on the floor at one time some are eating some are drinking some are in nesting boxes but most are on perchs. I have 30 birds in an 8 x 8 coop and they are able to free range all day if they want even on some cold days they go out. The only time they were cooped up was when we had blow freezing and wind. I have a boat load of snow on the ground and they still go out. They make little chickie paths to get to certain areas where the grass is showing like by the septic area (its warmer there and the snow always melts there first when sun peeks out. The less room the warmer your coop stays, I clean coop every monday and add more bedding it is not messy or stinkie, or wet.