How many do you think I can fit?

[aminarchick]

Was wondering how many full sized hens i can fit in my coop and run i believe the coop is 10×15 no clue on the run but judging by the pictures let me know your opinion. Thanks .

 

[PapaChaz]

10 x 15 = 150 sq ft. So the general consensus is a minimum inside space of 4 sq ft per full size chicken, which would equal out to 37 1/2 chickens in that much room.

HOWEVER, you can also think of it this way, they don't go stand in their own little 2x2 square and set up homesteads.......LOL so once you get to a certain size, the 'per bird' average can actually be a little less because they'll have enough room to spread out. The big thing about inside space is how much time do they spend in there? even in winter, they'll go outside unless you have a lot of snow.

how big is the outside area they have? I see it's fenced in, figure for out side a minimum of 10 sq ft per bird as a minimum and you'll be good

 

[aminarchick]

Hey thanks for the input. I have about 10 hens and some cockerial I am goin to try to re-home. But in the end I just wanted a general number of what would be an ideal amount of hens that can live comfortable and have plenty of room to run around.I'm maybe thinking around 15 but if i can fit way more i will put use to the large area. But yes I know they don't stay in 2×2 space haha they run around like loons. They get locked up at night and they come out right at the break of daylight usually I let them out about the same time my silky rooster starts crowing I don't even need an alarm clock haha. This is my first time owning chickens I'm 19 and just built this coop out of the shed cause I always wanted them. Nothing better than getting a fresh egg these days.anyway I never own chickens till this summer so I never experienced a winter with them yet but I did alot of research. I'd say the out side is at least 30×30.eventually I'm going to put black netting on the top of the run cause of the Hawks just to play it safe. I didn't loose a chicken yet to predator s and don't wanna haha

 

[Elbs]

My first coop was a shed also! One thing to think about is whether or not you have enough birds to keep the coop warm in the winter. Whereabouts are you from?

 

[Bryant Redhawk]

The biggest goof I've ever seen made was with chicken math by a friend in California, his calculations resulted in over crowding which created a pecking order disfunction which cost him half his flock.

What we do at Buzzard's Roost is calculate both inside space and outside space, for the inside we divide by 4 to get the number of chickens possible, for the outside we divide by 12 to get the number of chickens possible. The next thing we do is use the smaller number derived as the number of chickens we can house.

We free range our chickens, this means we could have a larger number of chickens or at least the number provided by the inside space computation. However, since we are not on the farm 24/7 and therefor have them in the run while we are away, it is best to keep the numbers down to prevent chicken stress issues from overcrowding. Once we are no longer away all day, we will be able to increase the number of chooks should we so desire.

 

[aminarchick]

It's so easy with a shed your 3/4 of the way done just add roosts,some windows, and fence. God I'm glad this house I bought came with it haha. I'm in northeastern Pa. The winters get pretty nasty up here and based on your caculating method I got 25 birds but yeah I never thought about warmth your right I was thinking more about space.

 

[Elbs]

I have a 10x10 right now and I'm upgrading to a much larger (13+ x 20+, we're not settled on a design yet) coop. I'm adding birds all summer.

I have 2 roosters in my original flock, but last winter I had 3 and 18 hens. They had plenty of room. But I also have a covered run so they went out most of the winter.

I'm from Alberta (Canada) and we'll get periods of -30 to -40 Celsius. I use a heat lamp only when it cracks down to - 40.

Is your coop insulated?

If you're not wintering roos you can typically keep more birds too, depending on personalities.

 

[aminarchick]

Hope all goes well with your design and I will maybe keep 2 roosters, my silky roo and my easter roo. I think the worst we had here was -10 °. My coop isnt insulated. I was reading and it said that if you insulate your coop you build moisture and that's deadly to the chickens. I heard the more circulation you have in your coop in the winter the less moisture you have .don't know if it's true .but should I expect one to die in the winter ? Or do they make it just fine. Also how do you keep the water from freezing?

 

[junebuggena]

You also have to consider what living conditions are going to be like in the winter. Do you live some place where your chickens will be coop bound for a few months out of the year? Just because you technically have 'plenty of room' for 30 to 36 birds, doesn't mean you should have that many. Also, the larger the breed, the more space they need. The 4 sq ft coop, 10 sq ft run guidelines are based on a medium sized breed like a Leghorn of Hamburg. Most dual-purpose, brown egg laying breeds are large or extra large breed.

 

[aminarchick]

Yeah I do have a larger breed so yeah I can consider that I think I'm going to stick with 20 icluding 2 roosters. Our winters in pa are pretty cold and plenty of snow. For about 3 months. But I'm going to see for the first time if they are scared of the snow. I will try to let them out as much h as I can.