How many chickens could my coop hold?

[yootis]

We built our coop for our original 7 chickens, with a roost of 24 square feet (6x4) and a run area with 72 square feet (6x12). We typically let them run around outside in the yard for about 2 hours a day.

We just went a little nuts and placed an order for another 4 chicks since that was the minimum we could buy. That would give us a total of 11. Is this too many? Is this fair to them, or would it be too crowded? I've seen all sorts of guidelines out there, some lower and some higher, but I wanted to get the group's opinion on this. We love the chickens and want to give them a good quality of life.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[nao57]

I say go for it. Be darned with what others say.

My thinking on this changed recently because of something I learned. I'll tell you about it below.

I've been fascinated with honeybees and agriculture for years. I always held back on getting honeybees because of fearing what other people thought. I especially was worried about what relatives I lived with thought.

One day I was looking through Youtube videos and say this guy in Vietnam had dozens of honey bee hives all stacked up in an alley little smaller than the amount of space to put a Volkswagon in.

His setup was very clean and nice. You can see in the videos that this guy really loves beekeeping both as a trade and a hobby.

So I'd lost tons of time, thinking I had to be like these mega farmers with huge plantations and tons of land while this guy was making a living doing what he loved in an area about the size of a small street alley.

Now I get that you do have to be practical. You have to think about how others near you and living with you or your neighbors might mutiny or cause trouble.

But there's ways of mitigating that. You can keep it clean and free of noise and not an eyesore. It helps if people just don't know about something until they just accept it also.

Well, I hope that helps to think about.

I still don't have honeybees yet. But I do have ducklings.

And part of thinking about it, a lot of this economic damage and economic freefall is going to make people hungry. I don't think you can bet on other people. You want to do home crafts and home work projects as much as you can, because when you are an employee for others they will commit economic murder on you for no reason at all, just to give their child a new toy. And they've been doing that for years.

How much worse will it be if they are desperate?

You can think about how many people are in your family and how many chickens are needed to supply them with eggs and go from there.

Also some zoning rules for some municipalities count chicks differently than adult hens. If that's the case, in theory that means lets say your city lets you have 5 hens and 5 chicks, then you could have 5 laying hens and then raise 5 chicks as meat beards...then the day they get plump enough turn them into meat, and then get 5 more chicks, and raise them a few more months, and then rinse and repeat till you have your family taken care of. (This method would be less obvious.)

However, me personally I'm not a noise person. I don't like noise. I can't stand rooster noises.

 

[Kgbao]

I fully agree with nao57, do as you feel is safe and comfortable with, it’s your coop and your chickens. The bee theory confuses me, if we are talking hive versus coop size. There is 10s of thousands of bees per hive and they are climbing all over each other, if you lose a dozen bees you would probably never notice minus seeing the dead bodies, now if your chickens let’s say you have 12 start fighting get injuries or what have you, and you lose one you will notice the one dead bird.

If your coop (enclosed area) is only 6x4 (24sq ft) the math would say 8 chickens would be the magic number at 3sq ft a bird, 4sq ft a bird is better to help keep down on the following. Hens will start pecking each other, or fighting for space or just out of boredom. I’m sure there are plenty of examples and plenty of people that have done it with less square footage with out issues.

This also would depend on which type of chickens you have...

 

[Arielle2]

Your question is one of thoughtfulness and care. Density does matter.

My girls live by groups. They are a family with established pecking orders and friends .Adding an outsider is not easy on anyone. It will require thoughtful adjustment. This is not like adding 4 new fish to a fish tank.

The new ones need a separate space to grow up for about 4months until they are almost the size of the others. Gives them a fighting chance when they are challenged by the established group.

Do some reading on itegrating new babies please. Space is not the only concideration.

 

[rosemarythyme]

IMO they're going to be crowded. Your coop is built for 6, your run for 7 (calculating 4 sq ft per bird in coop, 10 in run). Also need to consider how much linear roost bar space you have, and how many sq ft of ventilation as well.

Your existing flock already knows each other so with the space they already have, they can get along. Integrating new birds takes extra space which you don't have - the newcomers need space to hide, to get away, which clutter provides, but clutter can eat up quite a bit of space.

 

[0die]

how do you manage your birds? I have 8 and the actual "coop" is only 3x4 floor area and perches. but they only go inside to hit the attached egg boxes.

they spend the entire day free ranging the backyard and roost inside the enclosed 6x12 run area. Even in the winter they like to perch out in the open air to sleep. I could have just built egg boxes and an enclosed run to sleep in.

It needs to be freezing or a hurricane to drive them inside.

 

[Mamatomany123]

I think it's way too small. This is my first time ever owning chickens and when they were in their brooder box I noticed pecking. I now have 7 7 week old chickens in a 35 by 20 run. The coop is 5 x 5 and we are extending it to a 10 x 5. No chance for overcrowding and I havent seen any pecking since moving them outside a month ago. Chickens can survive in smaller spaces but theyll be much happier with more room.

 

[Rooapalooza]

Either build another run to add to your coop, as big as you can make it, or give your birds more free-range time, or (ideally) both. I have around 14 chickens at a time; I made a 25x8ft run and it looks too crowded when they are all in there so I've pretty much never kept them in it. My birds are spoiled brats though.
The usual recommendation is 10sqft per bird at minimum, so you are going to need more space. If I were you I would build another run that's 6X24 (I'm guessing that would fit on your current setup).