How many chickens for this setup?

[nikirushka]

Hello

If all goes well, this year I will finally, finally be getting some chickens! I am just in the process of clearing the area the housing will go on, it needs a bit of repair work then I'll be good to go. So I'm just looking into the actual chicken side of things!

What I have is a dog kennel and attached run. Very secure, very well built with super strong kennel mesh that the foxes will not get through!

The kennel part is 5' x 4', and the run is 5' x 7'. How many chickens do you guys think that could happily hold? I'd rather under-stock than stock to the limit, if that makes sense.

Thanks

 

[Free Feather]

What do you mean by kennel attached to run? People typically use the kennel for the run, attached to a coop. Your description is confusing.

 

[nikirushka]

The kennel is basically a shed. So it's a 5'x4' shed with an external 7'x5' run attached.

Similar to this but without the panelling at the bottom of the run (just mesh down to the bottom):

http://www.woodngarden.co.uk/Images/Timber Garden Buildings/Pets/Apex Deluxe Dog Kennel M2.JPG

 

[tracecom]

Hello

If all goes well, this year I will finally, finally be getting some chickens! I am just in the process of clearing the area the housing will go on, it needs a bit of repair work then I'll be good to go. So I'm just looking into the actual chicken side of things!

What I have is a dog kennel and attached run. Very secure, very well built with super strong kennel mesh that the foxes will not get through!

The kennel part is 5' x 4', and the run is 5' x 7'. How many chickens do you guys think that could happily hold? I'd rather under-stock than stock to the limit, if that makes sense.

Thanks

Generally, you need 4 square feet of floor space in the coop for each chicken; the kennel has 20 square feet, so that would be 5 full size chickens. Anything that occupies floor space (feeder, waterer, nest box, etc.) would need to be subtracted from the 20 square feet in the kennel, and would reduce the number of chickens.

And the rule of thumb for the run is 10 square feet per chicken; the run has 35 square feel, so that would be 3.5 chickens, but 4 would probably be okay. So the answer is 3 - 4 chickens.

All things considered, I would probably go with 4, but 3 might be better.

 

[lovemy6hens]

Assuming it's a dog kennel chicken coop with attached dog run as chicken run.
3 standard size chickens.

 

[nikirushka]

I have replied with a link to give an idea of what it looks like, it's just waiting on admin approval.

 

[Free Feather]

If you free range, you can have 5.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! I agree four birds; five is pushing it. There will be times when the birds won't go outside due to the weather, and especially if you have pushy hens, things could get unpleasant in there. Mary

 

[Cluckies]

Personally, I would not go higher than 3 with that set up. I have some nastiness going on in my coop because I used basically the minimum 4 sq. ft per coop space, 10 square ft per run space. I think they would be happier if I only had 4 in there instead of 6. my coop is 6.5x4 and my run is 10.4x6.5. it is a constant battle for them to get along and not feather pick, picking on one, going after each other. I have pinless peepers on two of the worse culprits. we were better in the summer when they free ranged everyday for a few hours, but when they are stuck in the coop/run (I have a greenhouse panels to block wind in the run) but still, stir crazy. click on "My Coop" to the left to see my set up for 6 chooks. They spend no time in the coop outside of roosting at night and laying eggs, other wise they are in the run.

 

[nikirushka]

They will have some daily free ranging time, a few hours at a time. I'll have to work it round my dogs to keep them safe so they won't be able to be out all day, but they certainly will have some time and my garden is huge

Longer term they may be able to be out while the dogs are but not until I've done a LOT of calmness training with them so for now, I'm working under the assumption of a rotation system. I may fence off my patio for the chickens which is next to where the setup is going, but I'm undecided on that yet.