How many chickens should I keep

[BrahmasMama02]

Hello!

I was wondering how many chickens I should cap out on?

My coup/ box is 5*5 with two roosting bars that extend all the way across. It’s going to have internal nesting boxes that will slide out.

My run is 14*5 (it includes the space under the coup)

That would make the coup 25 square feet and run space 70 square feet. So 95 square feet total.

They will be free ranged on days I’m home and can have my Pyrenese mix who has worked as a lgd in the past home. I don’t want her outside when I’m not home because she’ll run off in the case her collar isn’t working.

What do yall think?

Here’s a photo of my corgi: Artemis checking out the chickies !!

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

At most 20- 25 birds.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

At most 20- 25 birds.

That sounds high? I thought it was 4 square feet/bird for the coop and 10 square feet/bird for the run?

@Lizparrish311 What is your weather usually like? How good are the odds you’ll have to keep them locked up due to bad weather or predators?

 

[BrahmasMama02]

At most 20- 25 birds.

Okay because right now we have 18, but the five buffs are going to my fiancés step mom. So in theory we’ll have 13 after all is said in done. Then we have a couple we are watching for gender. Could I maybe get away with getting 6 chicks from the feed store and still not have too many ?

 

[puddle_drinker]

Hello!

I was wondering how many chickens I should cap out on?

My coup/ box is 5*5 with two roosting bars that extend all the way across. It’s going to have internal nesting boxes that will slide out.

My run is 14*5 (it includes the space under the coup)

That would make the coup 25 square feet and run space 70 square feet. So 95 square feet total.

They will be free ranged on days I’m home and can have my Pyrenese mix who has worked as a lgd in the past home. I don’t want her outside when I’m not home because she’ll run off in the case her collar isn’t working.

What do yall think?

Here’s a photo of my corgi: Artemis checking out the chickies !!

To find out how many chickens you'll actually cap out at go here: https://www.heritageacresmarket.com/chicken-math-calculator/
Take the quiz and you'll see what you'll wind up with.

 

[21hens-incharge]

At most 20- 25 birds.

I disagree. Their entire coop is 25 square feet with internal nests taking up some of that space.

The maximum I would suggest in that amount of space is 5.

 

[BrahmasMama02]

That sounds high? I thought it was 4 square feet/bird for the coop and 10 square feet/bird for the run?

@Lizparrish311 What is your weather usually like? How good are the odds you’ll have to keep them locked up due to bad weather or predators?

I’m in Virginia. It doesn’t get too hot . It does get cold . Our coup is built like a freight train! We are putting automatic lights on it and I have alarms (solar) that I’m setting up. My Pyrenese mix is an experienced lgd but they will only be free ranged when I’m home. Which will be about every weekend, and around 3 every other day.

 

[TaylorGlade]

Hello!

I was wondering how many chickens I should cap out on?

My coup/ box is 5*5 with two roosting bars that extend all the way across. It’s going to have internal nesting boxes that will slide out.

My run is 14*5 (it includes the space under the coup)

That would make the coup 25 square feet and run space 70 square feet. So 95 square feet total.

They will be free ranged on days I’m home and can have my Pyrenese mix who has worked as a lgd in the past home. I don’t want her outside when I’m not home because she’ll run off in the case her collar isn’t working.

What do yall think?

Here’s a photo of my corgi: Artemis checking out the chickies !!

At most, 5 birds with that size coop assuming it's standard breeds. 20-25 is far too many.

Edit: fixed typo

 

[BrahmasMama02]

I disagree. Their entire coop is 25 square feet with internal nests taking up some of that space.

The maximum I would suggest in that amount of space is 5.

The internal nesting boxes will only take up 4 feet of space … hmmm

 

[BrahmasMama02]

At most, 6 birds with that size coop assuming it's standard breeds. 20-25 is far too many.

6 birds ? Damn I thought if they had a lot of run space then their coop was large enough. So what I’m hearing is I should stick with the 13.