How many chickens will this size coop hold

[Bi0s]

i turned an old barn into a coop for my chickens the coop is 25x25 10 foot tall and the run which is still in progress will be 8 x 12 6 foot high how many can this hold with out being over croweded thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

That is a hard one. The usual rule of thumb on here is a minimum of 4 square feet in the coop for each chicken, but that is along with 10 square feet per chicken in the run. With you having 625 square feet in the coop but 96 square feet in the run, the answer by that is somewhere in between 156 and 9 chickens. So the normal rules of thumb do not really apply.

There are a lot of different things that factor in as to how much room a chicken actually needs. A lot of that depends on how you manage them. Many commercial operations do things that we don't so they can pack a lot of chickens in a small space. Trimming off their upper beak so they won't become cannibalistic if really crowded and using automatic poop handling equipment are just a couple of them. I'll include a write-up I did a while back that discusses it some. That may bore you to death or maybe you will pick up something that helps you.

I think you question is not how many can I shoehorn in there but is more how many can I put in there and them be comfortable. There is a difference in them having enough room and them being less stressed out. There is the law of diminishing returns, but in general, the more room they have the happier and easier to manage they will be. In that set-up, I'd think you could easily have more than 50 chickens. With that relatively small run for that many chickens, I would expect that many would not use the run but that they would be pretty content in the coop. With that much space in the coop, they would have a pretty good life.

Another side to that is that the more you put in there, the more you have to manage them, especially poop management. I think the poop management would become a real issue with that many chickens and that set-up. Chickens poop a lot. If they poop in the coop, eventually you have to manage it. You get great stuff for your compost heap, but I personally think the less often you have to clean out the coop, the better. If you have a set-up where they spend a lot of time in the run or free ranging, the poop is a lot easier to manage. If the outside space is big enough relative to the number of chickens, the poop will dry up and turn to dust when they scratch it. Or it just seems to melt into the ground and go away.

We all have different set-ups and goals. There is no one right answer for all of us. I think you have the makings of a great set-up for your chickens. If you keep the number of chickens relatively small, you could probably go years in between having to clean out that coop and your chickens will have a real nice life. Hope this helps a bit. Here is that write-up I mentioned.

As long as you have enough height for the roosts to be noticeably higher than the nest boxes, height does not matter to chickens. They are basically ground dwelling birds, so the ground area is all that really matters space wise. I said it does not matter to the chickens. It does matter to me if I have to work in there. It matters quite a bit.

If the nest boxes are high enough off the ground that the chickens can easily get under them, then nest boxes do not take away from the space available. The tops of the nesting boxes do not add to the living space either although they may occasionally be up there. Ground level is what counts.

Some of the things that make up the space requirement are, in my opinion:

1. Personal space for the birds. They have different personalities and different individual requirements. Some are very possessive of personal space and some can share.

2. Access to feeder and waterer. The general recommendation is that they all be able to eat at one time, but access to the waterer is also important. Part of this is that they seem to like to all eat at once but not necessarily drink at the same time. Part of it is that a dominant bird may keep others from eating or drinking, especially with limited access.

3. Being able to put the feeder and waterer where they will not poop in it when they roost.

4. Roost space. They not only need to have enough room to roost, they need to have enough room for them to sort out who gets to sleep next to whom and who gets the prime spots. They also need enough room to get on the roosts and get off them. When they get on, they may jump from some midway support or fly directly to the roost, but either way, they like to spread their wings. And some chickens seem to enjoy blocking the entry points if there are limits. And when they get off, mine tend to want to fly down, not jump to a halfway point. They need room to fly down without bumping into feeders, waterers, nesting boxes, or a wall.

5. Poop load. The larger area they have the less often you have to actively manage the poop. They poop a lot while on the roost so you may have to give that area special consideration, but mucking out the entire coop can be backbreaking work plus you have to have some place to put all that bedding and poop. In my opinion, totally cleaning out the coop is something that needs to happen as seldom as possible.

6. How often are they able to get out of the coop? The more they are confined to the coop, the larger the personal space needs to be. The normal recommendation on this forum is 4 square feet per full sized chicken with a minimum of 10 square feet of run per bird. This additional requirement outside is sometimes not mentioned. How often they are allowed out of the coop may depend on a lot more than just weather. Your work schedule, when you are able to turn them loose, what time of day you open the pop door to let them out or lock them up at night, all this and more enters into the equation. The 4 square feet recommendation assumes they will spend extended time in the coop and not be able to get in the run. What that extended time can safely be depends on a lot of different factor so there is no one correct length of time for everyone.

7. Do you feed and water in the coop or outside. The more they are outside, the less pressure on the size of the coop.

8. The size of the chicken. Bantams require less room than full sized chickens. This has to be tempered by breed and the individual personalities. Some bantams can be more protective of personal space than others, but this is also true of full sized breeds.

9. The breed of the chicken. Some handle confinement better than others.

10. The number of chickens. The greater the number of chickens, the more personal space they can have if the square foot per chicken stays constant. Let me explain. Assume each chicken occupies 1 square foot of space. If you have two chickens and 4 square feet per chicken, the two chickens occupy 2 square feet, which leaves 6 square feet for them to explore. If you have ten chickens with 4 square feet per chicken, each chicken has 30 unoccupied square feet to explore. A greater number also can give more space to position the feeders and waterers properly in relation to the roosts and provide access. I’m not encouraging you to crowd your birds if you have a large number of them. I’m trying to say you are more likely to get in trouble with 4 square feet per chicken if you have very few chickens.

11. What is your flock make-up. A flock with more than one rooster may be more peaceful if it has more space. I don't want to start the argument about number or roosters here as I know more than one rooster can often peacefully coexist with a flock, but I firmly believe more space helps.

12. What is the maximum number of chickens you will have. Consider hatching chicks or bringing in replacements. Look down the road a bit.

I'm sure I am missing several components, but the point I'm trying to make is that we all have different conditions. There is no magic number that suits us all. The 4 square feet in a coop with 10 square feet in the run is a good rule of thumb for a minimum that most of the time will keep us out of trouble, but not always. I do believe that more is better both in the coop and in the run.

 

[f8thnjc]

that is a pretty small run for that size coop. Your coop could hold over 100 chickens, but your run can only hold about 8-9. I would consider making your run larger if you want to have that many. Outside space is very important.

 

[Bi0s]

run could go proably to a 12 x12 just want enough room for at least 12 is all

 

[Fred's Hens]

So much depends on your climate. Here, deep snow covers the ground for months, almost 5 months, and the indoor space needed for a dozen hens should be huge, 8x12 minimum. I'd say that would be just enough for a dozen hens to weather out the winter season on the floor. The run is too small, even at 12x12 and would be a mud/dirt pit very, very quickly. If you cannot range them, then you'll have to consider having two runs that you can alternate them on by week. They allows for the sod to recover a bit. The more space and the more you can rotate your run/pasture, the cleaner and healthier things will be.

 

[Ridgerunner]

With a coop that size, I think 12 chickens will be extremely happy with what you plan regardless of your climate and you will find that managing them will be pretty easy. With over 50 square feet per chicken in the coop, you put practically all of us to shame with the luxury you are providing.

Even if your run were many times larger, they will strip all green vegetation from it. As long as you do not put the run in a low spot where water drains into it, an 8x12 will do great with that size coop and that number of chickens.

The main issue I can think of with a barn that size is to make sure it is predator proof. There are many different styles of barns. Some predators such as raccoons and foxes are real good at getting in. But from a space standpoint, you are doing great.

 

[Bi0s]

well thanks its pretty tight barn nothing to get in i dont think and i dont realy think we have an issue with predators around here neighbor has a bunch of chickens they free range all day and they have not had no issues i will do a 12x12 run for now i think see how it goes