I would not house 20 hens in 50 sf, even if they aren't in there much. I have less then half as many birds in a 65 sf coop and I would not want any more in there. Mine also free range most of the time but shoot, even where I live in central CA my birds won't go out in bad weather. If it's windy and/or rainy and colder then they like they'll spend most of the day in their coop. So I'm not sure how much climate actually does mean in terms of coop size because no matter where you live your birds are aclimated to that area and they probably aren't going to enjoy bad weather no matter what that means in terms of temps and precip for your location. So you are always better off with plenty of room in the coop. Even if your birds only sleep in their coop they still need enough space to prevent fights over roost space. If you build a too small coop and problems erupt down the road then you are stuck with the hassle of either adding on to the coop or getting rid of some birds. These problems are far easier avoided then dealt with later.
As far as a rooster? Yeah, you can have one with 6-8 hens but a few of those hens are going to get way to much "attention" from that rooster and may suffer for it. Now that my flock is smaller, only 9 birds currently, I am keeping a hen only flock for the time being.
As far as a rooster? Yeah, you can have one with 6-8 hens but a few of those hens are going to get way to much "attention" from that rooster and may suffer for it. Now that my flock is smaller, only 9 birds currently, I am keeping a hen only flock for the time being.
