How many chickens can I have in coop

[Quacking ducks]

Since you already have chickens, you can make a judgement based on how they are actually doing. That's the best way to learn what works (or does not work) about your own specific situation, with your own specific chickens.

If you are thinking of adding chickens, be aware that they need more space per chicken for the first few weeks or months, because they often want to keep space between the old chickens and the new chickens, and because one group or the other may get bullied. A group that already gets along well does not need the extra space (or at least not as badly.)

So… right now I have 9 hens and no rooster. They are about 5 months old so they are not full grown yet but they seem to be doing pretty well with the space they have right now. I thought about come spring if one of the hens go broody either buying some eggs or chicks and giving them to one of the hens. What do you think? I thought it might be easier if they are raised by one of the hens in my flock than to add adult chickens.

 

[DobieLover]

So… right now I have 9 hens and no rooster. They are about 5 months old so they are not full grown yet but they seem to be doing pretty well with the space they have right now. I thought about come spring if one of the hens go broody either buying some eggs or chicks and giving them to one of the hens. What do you think? I thought it might be easier if they are raised by one of the hens in my flock than to add adult chickens.

You are over max capacity. Broody hens need room to work with and you don't have it. You should not add any more birds to that coop space.

 

[NatJ]

So… right now I have 9 hens and no rooster. They are about 5 months old so they are not full grown yet but they seem to be doing pretty well with the space they have right now. I thought about come spring if one of the hens go broody either buying some eggs or chicks and giving them to one of the hens. What do you think? I thought it might be easier if they are raised by one of the hens in my flock than to add adult chickens.

I would expect some problems with that many chickens as they grow older and during the winter, but what I expect may not match what actually happens. If overcrowding does cause problems to develop, the obvious solution is to remove some hens at that time (sell, give away, or butcher), or to provide more space. If you have to remove some hens, I suggest watching how the individual hens interact, and removing any outliers (bullies, victims, loners).

Personally, I would not plan on adding any more chickens unless you can add more coop space as well. I just don't think it is likely to work out well.

Yes, having a hen raise chicks can make it easier to integrate those chicks into the flock. But be aware, a hen with chicks will usually want all other chickens to stay away from her chicks-- depending on what size pen they are in (run size or coop size), that can create problems. I have had some broody hens that wanted other hens to stay about 10 feet away in every direction, which of course is impossible in a coop only 4 feet wide! I have had other hens that did not feel the need for quite as much space, so it seems to really depend on the individual hen.

(For all of this: what I say is based on my personal experience, and also based on reading what people have posted on this forum-- who has problems, who does not, what conditions their chickens have. In general, more space per chicken leads to less problems, but that is not an absolute rule. Your experience may or may not match anyone else's.)

 

[SandyRiverChick]

20 years ago, my first flock of 6 was in that same size space. It seemed perfectly fine to me as they all lined up next to each other to roost and they fit. Fast forward to now, when given the right amount of roosting space they don't usually prefer to be right up against each other. And the reason that I now give them 1ft. of roosting space/bird is that with my first flock when one of the 6 died and the remaining 5 had to chose a new order, 2 of them killed another. The lesson to me was that the more confinement the greater the risk of bad behavior both in the morning and overnight roosting. If it were me, I'd put no more than 4 in there and start plans on how to expand the coop size to comfortably fit the additional chickens that I already have and want to get.

 

[TX Chick Noob]

With that many chickens you need at least 9’ of roosting space. They may seem to use less now because they aren’t full grown. But mine at 23 weeks are already starting to want that much space to be able to turn around not be crowded.

Edited to add: How high is that top roost that is visible? It looks really far up. Some of them probably have no trouble getting up there right now, but will have more trouble when full grown. It is also a long way to jump/fly down into a very small space, which could lead to injuries.

 

[Ridgerunner]

First, I suggest you follow the link in my signature below to get some of my thoughts on why chickens might or might not need more room. We are all so different we have different requirements. There are different factors in that. Some of it is to have enough room that they don't bully each other or even turn into cannibals because of crowding. Part of that is that the less room they have the harder you have to work or the less flexibility you have when things happen. My stress level really drops if I have flexibility when I need it.

Chickens don't see space as "coop space" or "run space" or "free range outside space". They just see it as space if it is available when they need it. If they are locked in the coop only for a time when they are awake coop space is much more important than if they can get outside as soon as they are awake. It may be hard to get them all to go into the coop at night if it is too crowded. Where are you located? What will your winters be like? Will your chickens be locked in the coop for days on end because of snow and the weather? That could cause problems.

One way chickens have learned to live in a flock is that if there is conflict the weaker runs away from the stronger and then avoids them. That's not a "square feet per chicken" thing, that's a "can it get away and avoid" thing. In a 4x8 coop there isn't much room to do that even with just two chickens. The reason a coop like that usually works is that if you have a flock that are fully integrated and are at the same level of maturity, there generally isn't conflict. When you integrate new chickens, especially with a difference in maturity, you need a lot more room because there will almost certainly be conflict. If you let a broody hen raise chicks with the flock Mama needs enough room to work and if they are crowded there probably will be conflict. After Mama weans the chicks and leaves them on their own to make their way with the flock the immature chicks need to avoid the adults.

With your 9 all being the same age and being raised together I think there is an excellent chance they will be Ok in your coop together though a rough winter could lessen those chances. If you had more than one boy you could have issues. If you hatch chicks you will probably have boys. Occasionally you get a girl or a boy that is a brute, I don't keep those. I can't give you any guarantees about any living animal and behaviors but I would not be that concerned with your current set-up and all girls unless your winters are harsh.

I would not try to add any more chickens to your flock and expect them to also use that coop. That doesn't matter whether you get chicks or let a broody hen raise them and try to integrate them for you. You might be OK with a broody hen until she weans them or tries to take them to the roost but the chicks would not have any room to avoid the others then. That's not because of any mythical, mystical, magical square feet per chicken number but simply because you don't have the room for them to avoid the others.

 

[Quacking ducks]

20 years ago, my first flock of 6 was in that same size space. It seemed perfectly fine to me as they all lined up next to each other to roost and they fit. Fast forward to now, when given the right amount of roosting space they don't usually prefer to be right up against each other. And the reason that I now give them 1ft. of roosting space/bird is that with my first flock when one of the 6 died and the remaining 5 had to chose a new order, 2 of them killed another. The lesson to me was that the more confinement the greater the risk of bad behavior both in the morning and overnight roosting. If it were me, I'd put no more than 4 in there and start plans on how to expand the coop size to comfortably fit the additional chickens that I already have and want to get.

I plan to add more roost bars on the end where the other roost bars are… I don’t open the window on the end because I don’t have a screen on it so I can put some over the window. We just finished these new coops about a month ago and it took us about 9 months to build the chicken coop, duck house and pen. So we aren’t going to be adding on for a while

 

[aart]

How high is that top roost that is visible? It looks really far up. Some of them probably have no trouble getting up there right now, but will have more trouble when full grown. It is also a long way to jump/fly down into a very small space, which could lead to injuries.

That was my first thought, but I think there are 3 roosts up there.
But still, they are awfully high for the small space that have to land.

So we aren’t going to be adding on for a while

Well, you can always reduce the number of birds.

 

[Quacking ducks]

That was my first thought, but I think there are 3 roosts up there.
But still, they are awfully high for the small space that have to land.


Well, you can always reduce the number of birds.

With that many chickens you need at least 9’ of roosting space. They may seem to use less now because they aren’t full grown. But mine at 23 weeks are already starting to want that much space to be able to turn around not be crowded.

Edited to add: How high is that top roost that is visible? It looks really far up. Some of them probably have no trouble getting up there right now, but will have more trouble when full grown. It is also a long way to jump/fly down into a very small space, which could lead to injuries.

The top roost is about 6ft

 

[Quacking ducks]

First, I suggest you follow the link in my signature below to get some of my thoughts on why chickens might or might not need more room. We are all so different we have different requirements. There are different factors in that. Some of it is to have enough room that they don't bully each other or even turn into cannibals because of crowding. Part of that is that the less room they have the harder you have to work or the less flexibility you have when things happen. My stress level really drops if I have flexibility when I need it.

Chickens don't see space as "coop space" or "run space" or "free range outside space". They just see it as space if it is available when they need it. If they are locked in the coop only for a time when they are awake coop space is much more important than if they can get outside as soon as they are awake. It may be hard to get them all to go into the coop at night if it is too crowded. Where are you located? What will your winters be like? Will your chickens be locked in the coop for days on end because of snow and the weather? That could cause problems.

One way chickens have learned to live in a flock is that if there is conflict the weaker runs away from the stronger and then avoids them. That's not a "square feet per chicken" thing, that's a "can it get away and avoid" thing. In a 4x8 coop there isn't much room to do that even with just two chickens. The reason a coop like that usually works is that if you have a flock that are fully integrated and are at the same level of maturity, there generally isn't conflict. When you integrate new chickens, especially with a difference in maturity, you need a lot more room because there will almost certainly be conflict. If you let a broody hen raise chicks with the flock Mama needs enough room to work and if they are crowded there probably will be conflict. After Mama weans the chicks and leaves them on their own to make their way with the flock the immature chicks need to avoid the adults.

With your 9 all being the same age and being raised together I think there is an excellent chance they will be Ok in your coop together though a rough winter could lessen those chances. If you had more than one boy you could have issues. If you hatch chicks you will probably have boys. Occasionally you get a girl or a boy that is a brute, I don't keep those. I can't give you any guarantees about any living animal and behaviors but I would not be that concerned with your current set-up and all girls unless your winters are harsh.

I would not try to add any more chickens to your flock and expect them to also use that coop. That doesn't matter whether you get chicks or let a broody hen raise them and try to integrate them for you. You might be OK with a broody hen until she weans them or tries to take them to the roost but the chicks would not have any room to avoid the others then. That's not because of any mythical, mystical, magical square feet per chicken number but simply because you don't have the room for them to avoid the others.

I did hatch most of my chickens and I was able to tell at about 2-3week what one were roosters and gave the 6 roosters away when I could tell. When they were about 4-5 weeks old I got 1 Rhode Island Red hen that was the same age and I also got 1 Black americana hen that was about 3 weeks younger. They are finally starting to settle in but they are definitely at the bottom of the pecking order. It was a lot easier to have just the ones that I hatched

So I live in NE Kansas and the low it normally ever gets here is about -15 and that is only a couple weeks in January. I normally Gange how the birds are doing in the morning if they seem to be cold I put them back in the house after feeding them. If I need to… on the cold days I can put some roost bars in the duck house which is bigger and have them together