How many more hens can fit in this coop?

[charlie1051]

For the record, there's nothing wrong with living in the city. My gam gam lived in the city.

However I guess farmers don't know jack and should ask online chicken support groups questions more often...

 

[StinkyAcres]

For the record, there's nothing wrong with living in the city. My gam gam lived in the city.

However I guess farmers don't know jack and should ask online chicken support groups questions more often...

I guess you're on the wrong forum. Most of us here on BYC are hobby farmers who consider our birds pets. And, no, I've never lived in the city.

I'm not saying this is you, and this is my opinion, but most farmers I know who farm for a living seem to me to place money above the welfare of the animals. This is understandable because crowding their barns, pastures, and coops is the only way they can make a profit and they can't get attached to their animals because they will eventually be butchered anyway. I tend to think they are not as tuned in to their animals and they just don't know or care how much happier and long-lived their animals could be if they gave them a bigger and cleaner place to live.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Dang that thing is built to withstand a defcon 9, class 10, nuclear bomb!!! Love it. I think I know who built it. Hey not to argue with or ruffle any feathers here..... cram that sucker full 'o chickens!

You got 6 in there and they free range all day? Chicken math says you can do 6 more....easy peasy. They're only sleeping in there yea? And yea not to make anyone angry, at least in the USA... but my 1/2 a cent worth says... you got room for more ladies.

If all they’re doing in there is sleeping, then maybe, but when - not if, but when - they start feuding over something, there’s not enough room to get away from one another. Also, when weather gets bad - hard rain without a break for days in a row; a surprise dump of heavy snow - they need to get away from one another, meaning at a minimum a LARGE run.

It is in fact physically possible to cram a bunch of hens in a coop. It’s also possible to have 8 humans sleeping in a studio apartment. I’ve got five nearly-grown in a large Nestera, while other posters here who free-range all day can see a dozen pile in. But those particular chickens have options, other coops to go to, and lots of time and space during the day to let their ya-yas out. I don’t think that this is true of OP’s setup.

I always get the heebie-jeebies when I read a post that starts with (essentially) “how many more birds can I cram in this coop?” In my experience, this question comes from a human desire for more more more, not from wanting the optimal conditions for creatures whose lives they control.

 

[Sefirothe]

For the record, there's nothing wrong with living in the city. My gam gam lived in the city.

However I guess farmers don't know jack and should ask online chicken support groups questions more often...

There’s a big difference between a farmer’s flock of livestock and a backyard city flock seen as pets.

And absolutely nothing wrong with either view and all the variable spaces between both ends of that spectrum. So long as the animals are given what they need and treated decently.